Newly qualified Milton Keynes Citizen reporter Lee MacGregor has
successfully challenged a section 11 application in a case where two
men were charged with kidnapping and robbery.
A Crown Prosecutor
made the application to the district judge at Milton Keynes Magistrates
Court, giving his grounds that it was in the interests of justice
because there were six other men involved in the alleged incident whom
the police had not yet caught.
MacGregor argued that these men
knew their involvement in the incident and withholding the names of the
two men who had been charged made no difference to any police
investigation.
The prosecution then argued it also wanted to protect the victim, a key witness, who was named in the charges.
But it was established that the victim of the alleged crime was known to all the charged and wanted men, and no order was made.
Citizen
editor Jan Henderson said: “The prosecution had no valid reason for
applying for a section 11 order, and credit goes to Lee for quickly
taking the initiative and successfully challenging it.”
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