A regional daily has won the right to name a 13-year-old murderer after a judge warned there was a “real risk of ill-informed information” circulating if he was not identified.

The South Wales Echo and its Wales Online sister website succeeded in getting reporting restrictions that were protecting Craig Mulligan, killer of his five-year-old stepbrother Logan Mwangi, lifted.

Echo publisher Reach plc had applied for the restrictions, made under Section 45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, to be lifted after Mulligan was found guilty of murder alongside his stepfather John Cole and stepmother Angharad Williamson.

Trial judge Mrs Justice Jefford has since accepted the application when the matter was dealt with at the killers’ sentencing.

How the Echo covered the sentencing

Mulligan was handed a life term with a minimum of 15 years, with Wales Online court reporter Philip Dewey winning Reach’s overall regional editorial award for June for his coverage of the case.

Jude Bunting QC, representing media organisations including Reach, told Cardiff Crown Court maintaining the order amounted to a “substantial and unreasonable” restriction on reporting the case.

He argued there was no evidence naming the defendant would lead to any psychiatric injury to him and said members of the public would be better able come to terms with the tragic events if they know the full facts because there was a risk of speculation otherwise.

John Hipkin QC, representing Mulligan, claimed publication of the defendant’s name could lead to risks of physical attacks or suicide attempts, with the court hearing the killer, now 14, was assaulted at his placement before his conviction after someone discovered his identity.

Logan died just a week after Mulligan came to live in the same house as him after the family courts awarded custody of the teenager to Cole with the support of Williamson.

Mrs Justice Jefford told the hearing: “A crucial part of the case is the family dynamics and his relationship with the adult defendants and Logan. Evidence heard at trial was that Craig idolised his father and his attitude towards Logan and involvement in his death was to a great extent driven by that relationship.

“A central aspect of the narrative leading up to Logan’s death was how Craig Mulligan came to be in the family home and the correlation of his role in Logan’s death.”

“There’s a significant gap in any understanding of this case and the circumstances of Logan’s death.

“There is a real risk of ill-informed information or a vacuum in that part of the case. This was a very serious offence involving a brutal and ferocious assault on a small child in the home where he should have been safe. [Mulligan’s] involvement was in my view significant.

“I have sentenced him on the basis he inflicted physical injuries on Logan and participated in the callous plan to dispose of his body in the river along with the pyjama top and along with John Cole participated in pretending to look for him. He gave a complex but untruthful tale about what happened.

“The attack on Logan that led to his death was wholly different nature and level of seriousness to anything that had or may have happened before, a few days after Craig Mulligan had been returned to the family home from foster care.

“This reinforces the submission the family dynamic was an important aspect of this case that needs to be understood. It is in the public interest to understand how and why that took place.

“There is due to be a safeguarding review in the public interest and reporting of it will be difficult with an inability to report the familial relationship.”

Echo court correspondent Philip Dewey said: “This was a team effort with reporters from BBC, ITV, PA , national titles and news agencies working alongside our legal colleagues to draft an application and to instruct legal representation to challenge the order protecting Mulligan’s identity.