Media ban on naming council to protect children

Mr Justice Peter Jackson said the complexity of the case could mean that naming the local authority would lead to the teenager who became pregnant – and the woman’s other adopted children – being identified.

The judge said the local authority had not sought anonymity for its own sake.

He was speaking at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London where lawyers representing parties in the case – including media organisations and the local authority – discussed detail of reporting restrictions.

Mr Justice Peter Jackson said a court order had been made to prevent the children – and the area where they lived – being identified in media reports.

The judge said that if the council’s name was added to information already in the public domain the risk of children being identified would rise to an “unacceptable level”.

“I am completely satisfied that the fact that the local authority in this case cannot be named is entirely the result of the necessity to protect the children and young people concerned,” he said.

Caoilfhionn Gallagher, who was representing newspapers including the Guardian, The Times and the Daily Mail as well as the BBC, said her clients had considered asking the judge to allow the council to be named but had decided against making such an application after recognising the risk of children being identified through a “jigsaw” of information.

The woman – who was born in America and is now 48 – admitted being cruel to two of her three adopted daughters. She was given a sentence of five years and four months in October 2012.

A crown court heard that she had made one of her adopted daughters impregnate herself with donor sperm. The teenager, now 19, had become pregnant at 14 but miscarried then became pregnant again at 16 and had given birth to a boy – now aged one.