The Harrogate Advertiser and Knaresborough Post were right to name a 15-year-old girl whose arm was broken as her mother was attacked by her partner, the Press Complaints Commission has decided.
The woman had complained about a court report published on 9 August last year headlined "Man fractured girl’s arm as he attacked mum", claiming it had named her and her daughter in breach of the reporting of crime clauses of the Code of Practice.
The newspaper contended it was necessary to identify both the complainant and her daughter to provide a full and fair report. Simply withholding the victims’ names would not have avoided identification in a "small community such as Knaresborough".
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The PCC decided that in reporting such cases, particular regard must be paid to the potentially vulnerable position of children, but said the incident was so specific that even if not reported in full, readers would have been likely to identify the complainant and her daughter through a jigsaw of facts.
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