Journalist challenges anonymity for three convicted criminals in wake of David Walliams case

A JOURNALIST IS seeking to challenge anonymity orders granted to three convicted criminals in Northern Ireland in the wake of the David Walliams case. 

Journalist Tanya Fowles said lifetime anonymity orders, which prevent criminals from ever being named in the press, are being granted “too often”, and some convicts are using them to evade public shame for their crimes. 

Two orders that Fowles is challenging involve convicted sex offenders who claimed that their names being published in the media could lead them to self-harm.

She is taking the challenge after the failed injunction by comedian and children’s book author David Walliams who tried to prevent serious allegations about him from being published. 

Fowles has written to the Lady Chief Justice – who is the head of the judiciary in Northern Ireland – to ask for these and one other anonymity order to be rescinded for the same reason the Walliams injunction was thrown out.

After learning of an investigation by The Guardian and ITV into his alleged sexual misconduct, Walliams sought an injunction at the UK’s High Court to prevent the claims being published. His lawyers said the impact of the allegations being published could lead him to take his own life.

He lost this bid and the story was published earlier this week. 

His lawyers’ case was based on Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which relate to the right to life and prohibition of torture, respectively.

Mr Justice Nicklin said in London’s High Court that he had to balance these rights against the media’s right to freedom of expression, which is protected under article 10 of the convention.

He also said that the state was not obliged “to guarantee that suicide will not occur or to eliminate every residual risk”.

Advertisement

Fowles told The Journal that lifetime anonymity orders have historically been reserved for exceptional circumstances, where there was a high risk that the accused would be harmed by another person.

In the past, certain high-profile criminals were given new identities after release from prison. This was the case for the two boys who murdered two-year-old James Bulger in Merseyside in 1993. 

But there’s been an increase in the number of people seeking anonymity on mental health grounds, particularly in Northern Ireland.

“Judges were clearly erring on the side of caution”, Fowles said. 

“I’m not saying there aren’t mental health issues, but they’re not suicidal. It’s a situational reaction.”

In her view, threatening suicide to avoid public scrutiny is tantamount to “blackmail” of the courts and the press.

Fowles says that in some cases where the accused is claimed to be at risk of self harm, no action had been taken to protect them from themselves prior to seeking lifetime anonymity.

The lack of previous intervention from mental health professionals indicates, in her view, that the risk may be, in reality, quite low.

Fowles noted other concerns around anonymity orders too. 

This year, the Dáil approved legislation for the establishment of Ireland’s first domestic violence register. It’s called Jennie’s Law, after Jennifer Poole who was killed by her ex-partner in 2021. He had a history of abusive behaviour that she wasn’t aware of.

Campaigners in Northern Ireland are seeking the same legislation to be enacted there.

However, Fowles says, should a domestic violence register be created, anonymity orders may prevent police from disclosing a person’s convictions.