C v Secretary of State for Justice: Admn 2014

The claimant sought to challenge a refusal to him, as a long standing convicted murderer of unsupervised leave from prison as part of a path to release. He was detained in a secure mental hosptal. The court now considered whether the claimant and hospital should be anonymised.
Held: The Court rejected the application for anonymity, but ordered it to be retained pending an appeal.
Cranston J said: ‘previous proceedings about this claimant are publicly available and I cannot see the justification for anonymity: the public have a right to know what I have decided about his claim for judicial review: R (M) v Parole Board [2013] EWHC 1360 (Admin), [2013] EMLR 23, paras 47-49. However, Dr H has written requesting that the hospital’s identity and that of the staff be concealed, to protect both the claimant and the other patients from potential intrusion. That is a reasonable request and there be an order of anonymity to that extent.’

Judges:

Cranston J

Citations:

[2014] EWHC 167 (Admin)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See AlsoM, Regina (on The Application of) v The Parole Board and Another Admn 22-May-2013
(Jan 2013) The court was asked whether an order for anonymity made in the course of proceedings for judicial review should be discharged upon the application of media and other interested parties. Various newspapers had applied for the order to be . .

Cited by:

CitedRegina (on the application of C) v Secretary of State for Justice SC 27-Jan-2016
The applicant was a convicted murderer who had been held in a high security mental hospital. His application for unescorted leave had been refused, and he wished to challenge the decisions. Anonymity in the subsequent proceedings had been refused to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Prisons, Media

Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.606370