Press regulator says Evening Times website breached Editors’ Code in reporting of court case

Clause 11 of the Code requires that the press must not identify victims of sexual assault or publish material likely to contribute to such identification unless there is adequate justification and they are legally free to do so.

The complaint was upheld as a breach of Clause 11, and The Evening Times was required to publish this adjudication as a remedy.

The article reported that a man had pleaded guilty to sex offences against a young child.

The complainant said that by including certain details from the court hearings, the publication had failed to protect the identity of the victim, on whose behalf he was complaining.

The newspaper said that while the detail in the article may be distressing, it was a report of court proceedings which contained sufficient detail to allow readers to understand the offences.

The publication provided explanations as to why it did not believe that the specific pieces of information identified by the complainant were likely to contribute to the identification of the victim.

IPSO’s Complaints Committee made clear that the newspaper was entitled to report on this case, and to identify the defendant, in accordance with the principle of open justice.

However, Clause 11 of the Editors’ Code requires that, in doing so, it did not publish material likely to contribute to the identification of the victim.

The Committee considered that the detail the article contained about the circumstances in which the defendant come into contact with the victim were of the kind that were likely to be known within the victim’s community.

When reported alongside the age of the victim, and the timeframes for the offences, these details represented material which was likely to contribute to the identification of the victim.

The complaint was therefore upheld as a breach of Clause 11.