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July 30, 2010

The Herald overturns ban preventing teenagers’ identification

By admin

Plymouth’s The Herald newspaper was able to name two teenage burglars after successfully lobbying to have an anonymity order preventing identification lifted.

Court reporter Stuart Abel made a written submission to the court requesting to name the pair after they admitted four joint charges.

The Herald reported how David Rice and Charlie Mitchell, both 16 year-old and from the Efford area, pleaded guilty to burglary of a house and a shed and attempted burglary of a second shed.

District Judge Paul Farmer agreed to the application to lift the usual anonymity given to under-18s because of the pair’s ‘regular offending and its impact on the community”.

Stuart told the Newspaper Society website:

‘Regardless of whether somebody is 16 or 26 people living in tight knit communities are often living in fear of youths who harass them and burgle their homes.
 
‘They need to know that the law is dealing with them.” 

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