Public right to know aces call for anonymity

One of our sister papers reported an interesting challenge in the courts this week when a lawyer tried to prevent the name of a man accused of a child sex offence from being published by the media.

- with Mike Hill

The defence made the unsuccessful application for anonymity in the case of Mark Mawhinney during a hearing covered by the Belfast News Letter.

It was claimed that as the 33-year-old defendant has a learning disability he should be afforded the same right to anonymity as a juvenile defendant appearing before the courts.