A knife attack left three young girls dead and sparked riots in Southport. So why can’t the British press name the suspect?
Patrick Daly Noah Lloyd Tanner Stening Cesareo Contreras Erin Kayata Cyrus Moulton Cynthia McCormick Hibbert
Northeastern media law expert Ursula Smartt explains why the 17-year-old suspect has the right to anonymity under U.K. law.
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There are also punishments written into law for those electing to name an underage suspect.

“If a British journalist were to say, ‘I’m going to publish the name and who it is’ because they can easily find that out, then that journalist would be in contempt of court,” Smartt says. “And the journalist, their newspaper, the publishers of that paper would be in contempt of court and could be fined and, at the very most, there could be a two-year prison sentence.”

The reason for providing suspects and defendants who are under 18 with the right to anonymity in the press is two-fold, Smartt explains.

“The reason why the law is such — that you cannot name a young offender — is in order to protect the families,” she says.

“That is the idea behind all this. It is not only to protect the youth but to protect the family. There might be brothers and sisters. Most likely that family of the attacker will have now been put in secure accommodation by the police.

“And they will probably have to be in such accommodation with new identities for the rest of their lives because they are at risk of attack.”

With the suspect’s name not being able to be published by the British media, Smartt notes that this has led to a scenario where people are going on to social media to try to find out who the alleged attacker was.

“We don’t know the motive, we have no idea,” she continues. “People are speculating. But because social media has been so active on this, saying ‘This was a Muslim attacker,’ that is when the right-wing defense leagues started to mobilize.

“On top of the grief the town is already experiencing, you now get these terrible attacks happening and this awful violence.”

Smartt is the author of the textbook “Media & Entertainment Law.” In her sixth edition of the book due out next year, she argues that Britain’s contempt of court laws are in need of updating to reflect the way international online news reporting has changed.

“The contempt laws are well out of date,” she says, “because you can read about any of this online via a Canadian, American or Australian newspaper. But yet a British journalist is not allowed to publish any details of the case until the trial is live.”

Even during a trial, Smartt says reporting restrictions will mean that a suspect under the age of 18 will not be allowed to be named by U.K. media.

But Smartt says there have been notable examples when judges have chosen to remove a young person’s right to anonymity after a trial has concluded if their crimes were deemed to have been “heinous.”

This year, teenagers Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, who could not be named during their trial for the murder of transgender 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, had their identities revealed after reporting restrictions were lifted following their conviction.

If a suspect reaches the age of 18 before a trial takes place, then restrictions are likely to be lifted except in rare cases where there is another legal obstacle.

Charged suspects who are 18 or older can in most circumstances be named in the media unless reporting restrictions are imposed by a judge.