The Court of Appeal (Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls and Warby and King LJJ) has allowed the appeal against the decision of Williams J to anonymise three judges who presided over historic proceedings relating to Sara Sharif. Sara was murdered by her father and step-mother in August 2023 and they were convicted and sentenced to life in prison in December 2024.
The issue of judicial anonymity was identified by the Master of the Rolls, when granting permission to appeal, as of “exceptional public interest”, and the appeal reaffirms the importance of the open justice principle as it relates to the judiciary.
The Court allowed the appeal primarily on the basis that (1) Williams J did not have jurisdiction to prevent publication of the judges’ names when he made the anonymity order; but also that (2) the process by which the judge had concluded that the historic judges should be granted anonymity was irregular; and (3) Williams J had demonstrated inappropriate unfairness towards the media.
The judges in the historic proceedings relating to Sara Sharif have been given 7 days before their names are published to enable HMCTS to put measures in place to protect them from any potential harm that might be caused once their names are made public.
Adam Wolanski KC and Samuel Rowe acted on behalf of various media organisations, instructed by Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP.
The judgment can be found below. A full case report will follow.