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A High Court judge has said that his interpretation of the information restrictions in relation to child victims of crime differs from a recent judgment of the Court of Appeal.
Speaking in the case of now-adult victims of child abuse who want their rapist named, Judge Tony Hunt said his own interpretation of the law “must yield to that of the higher court.”
He was commenting on section 252 of the 2001 Children’s Act, which establishes mandatory and automatic restrictions on reporting in the case of “any proceeding for a crime against a child.”
Last month, the Court of Appeals ruled that these bans extend to children who have died or turned 18.
The Court of Appeal ruled in a media appeal against restrictions placed on the name of a girl and her mother.
The woman was found innocent for the folly of killing her three-year-old daughter.
Judge Hunt said that, in his opinion, “the natural and ordinary meaning of the term ‘child’ does not include a deceased child or an adult.”
He said: “Under that interpretation, the operation of section 252 would automatically cease when the child in question died or became an adult.
“In any of these events, there would no longer be any children to whom the protection conferred by law could apply.”
Judge Hunt said that he did not believe that this interpretation “had been artificial or artificial.”
In the case before the Central Criminal Court, lawyers for a 56-year-old convicted child rapist had previously presented to Judge Hunt that his client cannot be identified due to the Juvenile Law.
The man pleaded guilty in 2015 in Central Criminal Court to the repeated rape and sexual assault of his wife’s two children at their Co Wicklow home over a period of ten years.
The victims were less than 10 years old when the abuse began in 1993 and the attacks continued for a decade.
In March 2016, Judge Hunt imposed a 21-year prison term, with suspension for the last five years.
In that ruling, the victims, who are now adults, told the court that they wanted to waive their legal anonymity so that their stepfather could be publicly named.
However, because there were related cases that needed to be prosecuted in the Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Hunt suspended the waiver of anonymity.
These cases have now ended and the Director of the Public Ministry (DPP) seeks, on behalf of his two victims, that this suspension be lifted so that the convicted rapist can be identified.
This morning, Justice Hunt said that while the Court of Appeal’s ruling means that the prohibitions of section 252 apply, there is still scope in that section to lift the restrictions when the court “is satisfied that it is appropriate to do so in the interests of of the child”. “.
Consequently, it issued an order lifting all information restrictions in the case, saying it considered this to be “in the public interest.”
But he placed a 28-day suspension on his order pending a request from the defendant to the Court of Appeal.
Judge Hunt said that after reviewing the testimony of the victims and their repeated claims that they wish to be identified, he was satisfied that he should lift these bans.
He said that “the act of a victim speaking publicly about her experiences can help the victim recover from the effects of the crime” and can also encourage others in her position to come forward.
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