A teenage “gang leader” responsible for a “horrifying, violent and premeditated crime” has been named after a court fight by a regional daily.

Stoke-on-Trent daily The Sentinel and its Stoke-on-Trent Live sister website have won the right to identify repeat offender Jayden Flynn, 17, after a judge agreed it was in the “interests of justice” to do so.

Flynn, pictured, has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years detention in a young offenders’ institution for attacking his victim with a machete after he and a gang lured him to an isolated location.

He was just 16 at the time of the robbery, during which the victim was relieved of his Canada Goose jacket, £500 cash, his driving licence and his phone.

Reporting restrictions were lifted following The Sentinel’s challenge at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court, where Flynn had pleaded guilty to robbery – an offence for which he had a previous conviction.

Describing him as a “dangerous offender”, Judge Paul Glenn told the court: “This is a case where I do not think reporting restrictions are appropriate.

“The defendant is now 17. He has pleaded guilty to a serious offence.

“Knife crime is a serious issue and, it seems to me, an increasingly serious issue in this city.

“It is in the interests of justice, even considering the defendant’s welfare, as I of course do, that the press should be able to publish details of this robbery.”

David Farley, defending, had told the judge there was a chance Flynn would be “a wholly different person” on release.

Speaking to HTFP, Sentinel editor Marc Waddington told HTFP: “This was a horrifying, violent and premeditated crime, committed by a young man with a prior conviction for robbery.

“He had clearly not taken the opportunities for rehabilitation that would have been afforded to him after his last offence.

“We felt there was considerable public interest in the general public knowing this youth’s identity, given that in a relatively short time he would be free again and might present a risk of future offending.

“His defence lawyer stated that ‘there is a chance on his release that he will be a wholly different person’, and I’m sure everyone in Stoke-on-Trent is very much hoping that turns out to be the case.”