A regional daily has successfully fended off two teenage murderers’ bids to keep their identities secret.

Newcastle daily The Chronicle has successfully applied for the right to name Kriesha Stroud, 15 and her boyfriend Jordan Tams, 17.

The couple were convicted, along with 18-year-old Leandro Lopes, of murdering Gary Belfield and attempting to murder his son, Luke Williams at a trial last year.

Due to their age, the pair had retained their right to anonymity under Section 45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 , but Chronicle court reporter Rob Kenendy argued they should be named due to the serious nature of the offence and the public interest in people knowing who the perpetrators were.

From left: Leandro Lopes, Jordan Tams and Kriesha Stroud

Stroud and Lopes had fought Rob’s application, but High Court judge Mr Justice Constable found in the reporter’s favour prior to sentencing.

The judge said: “In the circumstances of the case as I know them to be, there would be no justification for maintaining anonymity beyond 18.

“There is considerable benefit in contemporaneous reporting of such serious crimes. The prejudice to the Mr Tams is negligible.

“Even though there is a longer time until Ms Stroud’s identity would otherwise be reportable, I do not consider that, in circumstances where restrictions will in any event be restricted a little way into a lengthy sentence, that there is sufficient prejudice to outweigh the public interest in open reporting of this grave case.

“I therefore order that the reporting restriction presently in place is discharged.”