Manchester Evening News London editor Ian Wylie has successfully
challenged a High Court order preventing the media from publishing
anything which might identify the teenage daughter of a man who hanged
himself in prison.
Jon Brannan and Bernard Murphy were convicted
of murder in 1992 after the killing of a man outside a Manchester
nightclub. Both protested their innocence.
In January 2002 the
Appeal Court quashed their convictions. Murphy walked free, but Brannan
had committed suicide three years before while in prison.
His
daughter, Lineker Brannan, 17, and Murphy, went to the High Court last
December to challenge a HomeOffice decision not to award them
compensation.
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The court order banning identification of Lineker
had the effect of preventing the Manchester Evening News from
publishing any details about the case.
Wylie told Mr Justice
Richards and Mr Justice Pitchford that, even with identification
details removed, it would be obvious to a wide section of the MEN’s
readership who the case involved.
He submitted evidence to the
judges and counsel that the girl had provided a comment about her
father to the paper as part of reaction to the Appeal Court’s 2002
decision. She had also then posed for photos with family members at her
father’s grave.
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The MEN asked the judges to lift the order.
After
hearing that lawyers for the girl were not opposing the newspaper’s
application, Mr Justice Richards lifted the reporting restrictions.
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