Weekly law digests

Anonymity

DXB (by his litigation friend) v Persons Unknown and others [2020] EWHC 134 (QB), [2020] All ER (D) 129 (Jan)

The claimant’s claim, pursuant to ‘the Venables jurisdiction’, for an order extending anonymity in respect of criminal proceedings, which arose following the fatal stabbing of a young boy, and in which he had been a co-defendant, was dismissed. The claimant had not been charged for murder, but he had been convicted of possession of a bladed article (the offence), the most significant aggravating feature of which had been that he had bought the knife with which the deceased had been killed. The Queen’s Bench Division held that the circumstances did not justify granting an extended period of anonymity pursuant to the Venables jurisdiction and that, while the claimant had demonstrated that, if his anonymity was not extended, that would give rise to an interference with his right to private and family life under Art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the curtailment of his, and his family’s,