Media permitted to attend High Court care case for the first time
In an unprecedented move, a High Court judge today granted an application by media organisations allowing them to attend a hearing in a care case and identify the child involved.
Nicola and Mark Webster are trying to save a fourth child from adoption after three others were taken from them following findings of abuse. The parents deny abusing their children and say they are the victims of a miscarriage of justice. They assert that the children were wrongly taken away from them on the basis of flawed and incomplete medical and other evidence.
The case received wide publicity before an order was imposed in June this year banning any further reporting of the case. The identity of the parents and child was already widely known at the time of the ban.
The judge said the order should be lifted and the media permitted to attend the hearing, which would ordinarily be heard in private, so that the true facts of the case could emerge.
Click here for the full judgment and 5RB case report.
5RB‘s Mark Warby QC (instructed by Reynolds Porter Chamberlain) represented Associated Newspapers and Adam Wolanski represented the BBC.
Links
- Judge lifts family reporting ban – BBC News
- Delight for child abuse couple – thisislondon.co.uk
- Couple accused of child abuse can have their youngest child back – The Guardian
- Couple who beat court secrecy can take baby home – The Times
- Blow struck for open justice at High Court – Press Gazette