A judge has praised a regional daily journalist for live blogging a court case over the course of 30 days.

Mark Stanford covered the murder trial on a minute-by-minute basis for more than a month for the Bradford Telegraph & Argus.

During summing up, presiding judge Mr Justice Goss turned to Mark, pictured, and asked him if he had been blogging the case before thanking him for his coverage.

He had been joined at the trial at Bradford Crown Court by another Telegraph & Argus reporter, Jo Winrow, who focused on long-form reports while Mark focused on the live blog.

Mark told HTFP: “It was all rather embarrassing really. The trial judge, Mr Justice Goss, had sentenced the final defendant and he was thanking all of the hard work and efforts of the court staff and the security staff throughout the trial.

“The judge then turned his attention to me in the public gallery, saying ‘Are you the blogger?’ I stood up and replied ‘Yes, My Lord’.

“I then made a joke that blogger is one of the terms I have been called over the years as a journalist.

“I then can’t remember word for word what he said to me but he briefly thanked me for work throughout the trial. It was very nice of the judge to acknowledge my work in the trial and I certainly didn’t expect him to do it.”

The praise came last Thursday after a 17-year-old youth was found guilty of assisting an offender in the murder case of Mohammed Feazan Ayaz, 20.

Suleman Khan, Raheel Khan and Robert Wainwright were convicted of murder previous day, while Shoaib Shafiq, found guilty of assisting an offender, was sentenced.

Speaking on Thursday, T&A editor Nigel Burton added: “Covering a long-running court case in forensic detail is a big commitment – as well as a blogger we had a court reporter sat alongside him working on long-form stories and reporting for the paper – but the T&A is committed to bringing our readers the best coverage.

“Scrutiny of the courts and reporting the administration of justice is at the heart of our news operation.

“Mark did a magnificent job blogging this case on a minute-by-minute basis for more than a month. He was rewarded with record-breaking page views.

“This isn’t the first time we have covered a trial like this and the feedback proves our readers – and the judiciary – like them. Only yesterday I received a letter from a reader calling for Mark to be given a special award for his coverage.”