A reporter persuaded a judge to overturn an order which banned the media from naming a sex offender by pointing out that the court had no powers to give the man anonymity.
Hull Daily Mail journalist Nicky Harley challenged an order made at an earlier hearing when lawyers had told Judge John Swanson, sitting at Hull Crown Court, that despite 68-year-old Robert Aistrop admitting to 21 sex offences he should remain anonymous.
But when the case came up before Judge David Tremberg at the same court on Tuesday, Harley applied for the order to be lifted.
Harley argued there was no order the court could make which could give Aistrop anonymity, and that it was in the public interest for him to be named.
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Judge Tremberg said: “This is an application by the prosecution supported by the defence for me to take quite an exceptional course in the case of a serious sex offender namely that the defendant shouldn’t be named in the press.
“These are public courts and the public have a genuine and proper interest in having reports of cases which take place in these courts which serve the public.”
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