Journalists win right to name parents charged over death of child

Two regional journalists have successfully overturned a court order preventing the naming of parents charged with the death of their child.

Arguing that details of the case were already in the public domain Ed Walker and Julia McWatt, of Trinity Mirror’s Media Wales, overturned a Section 39 court order in Cardiff Crown Court on Wednesday.

The order had been put in place to prevent any details of a girl whose seven-year-old twin brother died in a house fire during the summer being published.

Preventing any details that could identify the girl being published meant the girl’s mother (who was charged with the murder of her son) and father (who was charged with causing or allowing the death) could also not be named.

Walker, who blogged about the case told Press Gazette: ‘There was particular public interest in the story. After the fire there was a lot of confusion about what was going on with the case and the community wanted to know what had happened to the child. There had already been considerable media coverage around the story from us and others.

Though we’d already been told by the judge that the section 39 would not be overturned we stuck to the facts and in the end he had to comply.”

See Press Gazette’s guide on how to challenge a court restriction.