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Youth Courts/ Sexual Offences/ Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act -

YOUTH COURTS

Youth courts deal with young people under the age of 18. Generally the law provides court orders to protect their anonymity. When a young person appears at a Youth Court - either as a defendant or a witness - he is automatically protected by:

S49 Children and Young Persons Act 1933.

S49 states that reports of a case at a Youth Court must not contain any particulars which could lead to the identification of any child or young person involved in the case as a defendant or witness. In particular it bans the names, addresses or names of schools and the use of any photograph of the young person.

S39 Children and Young Persons Act 1933

Sometimes a young person appears at an adult court (magistrates or Crown Court). Here there is no automatic anonymity as in a Youth Court but the magistrates or judge can issue an order under S39 Childrens and Young Persons Act 1933 which gives the same anonymity as S49 does in a Youth Court.

A S39 order therefore prevents a newspaper printing anything which could lead to the identification of a child or young person appearing at an adult court.

A case involving the Brighton Evening Argus case produced the following points:

1. The Court of Appeal rejected the correct construction of a S39 order as being "likely to identify the child.....to a person with no knowledge of the issues in the proceedings" as being too wooly.

2. In future it will be necessary to have in mind the following categories when considering publication of material which may infringe a S39 order:

 

a. Those with no knowledge of the child.

b. Those who were involved in any decision to suspend/expel/take the child into care etc. (They of course will already know the child's identity)

c. Those who were not involved in any such decision but are, for example, friends, neighbours or parents of classmates of the child who:

The Crime (Sentences Act) 1997

The Crime Sentences Act 1997 gives a Youth Court the power to lift the ban on identifying a young person when he is convicted if the magistrates believe it would be in the public interest.

The Press can ask for the anonymity to be lifted in the public interest. Guidelines for the court include:

• the seriousness of the case or

• the persistant offending of the young person and

• whether warning the community about the offender's behaviour would help prevent further offences.

The magistrates must weigh those points against the possibility that printing the young person's name and address etc would put him or his family at risk and also take into account the offender's age and vulnerability. They must also consider whether naming the offender would also reveal the identity of a vulnerable victim.

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SEXUAL OFFENCES

The law gives anonymity to victims of sexual attacks during their lifetime. The Sexual Offences (Amendments) Acts of 1976 and 1992 combine to protect the identities of complaints alleging the following crimes:

1. Rape

2. Attempted rape

3. Aiding and abetting rape or attempted rape

4. Incitement to rape

5. Conspiracy to rape

6. Burglary with intent to rape

 

The restrictions come in two stages:

1. Once an allegation has been made no personal details or picture can be published in his or her lifetime if it is likely to identify the complainant as a victim.

2. After a person has been accused of a rape offence no matter likely to lead to the victim being identified as a complainant must be published during the victim's lifetime.

The anonymity for the victim remains in force even if the allegation is later withdrawn or the accused is later tried for a lesser offence than rape.

It also applies to victims of male rape.

 

A judge at a Crown Court may remove the anonymity if he is satisfied that it imposes an unreasonable restriction on the reporting of the trial and that it is in the public interest to do so.

 

He can also do so to bring witnesses forward.

 

Since the passing of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 there has been no anonymity for rape defendants BUT publication of the identity of the defendant, combined with other details, could lead to the identification of the defendant, as where a husband is accused of raping his wife.

 

Other sexual offences:

The 1992 Act provides a similar two-stage anonymity for complaints in such offences as:

Intercourse with a mentally-handicapped person

Incest

Indecent assault etc

The restrictions can be lifted by a magistrate or a judge is he feels they unreasonably restrict reporting the case.

The anonymity can be lifted with the complainant's written consent.

 

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YOUTH JUSTICE AND CRIMINAL EVIDENCE ACT 1999

Reporting restrictions under the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 have not yet come into effect.

The restrictions under the Act include:

1. Identifying juvenile suspects after criminal proceedings start.
The Act makes it an offence to identify the name of a juvenile suspect once the criminal investigation has begun.
It prohibits publication of his
* name
* address
* school or other educational establishment
* workplace
* or any picture of him
if any of these would lead to his identification.

The only defence open to publisher who discloses the name of a juvenile suspect is that he was not aware and neither suspected, nor had reason to suspect, that the criminal investigation had begun.

Any appropriate criminal court, including a single magistrate, can lift the ban on identifying the suspect before court proceedings on the ground that it is necessary in the interests of justice but must first consider the welfare of the suspect.

2. Juveniles in adult courts.
The power to ban the identification of young people under the age of 18 who appear in adult criminal courts will now be exercised under S45 of the new Act rather than S39 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.
The adult court may now direct that:"There shall be no publication while he is under 18 of the:
* name
* address
* school or other educational establishment
* workplace
of a minor involved in the proceedings as a person:
* against or in respect of whom the proceedings are taken
* or who is a witness
nor shall any picture of, or including, the person be published if publication is likely to lead to his identification.

The media are given statutory grounds for seeking the removal or relaxation of a S45 order. The Act says that the court may dispense with the restrictions either:
* in the interests of justice or
* it is satisfied that the restrictions impose a substantial and unreasonable restriction on reporting the proceedings and that it is in the public interest to remove or relax the restrictions.
3. Anonymity for adult witnesses.
The Act gives courts the power to ban the identification of a witness over the age of 18 during his lifetime.
A court may make an order if it is satisfied that the quality of the witnesses evidence or the level of his co-operation would be diminished by fear or distress and that his evidence or cooperation would be improved if his identity were protected.

4. Evidence in Private.
The Act allows a court to make special measures directions to ease the strain on vulnerable or intimidated witnesses.
These include excluding the public and all but one member of the Press while evidence is being given in a sexual offence case or where a person other than the accused might intimidate a witness.

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