Now we are perfect, and this is all legal

[venta]

Baby P is currently all over the news, having died at the hands of abusive adults despite being on the social services' at-risk list. I'm sure you've read about it already.

Every single story comments that the baby "cannot be named for legal reasons". Which is fair enough, but what are the reasons? His mother (convicted of causing or allowing his death) "cannot be named for legal reasons", and to me it makes sense that if you don't want the baby identified you have to keep the mother's identity quiet, too. Her boyfriend, also convicted, can't be named - again that makes sense if you want to keep one identity quiet. The male friend who lived with them has been named (which was disquieting, since he shares a name and an age with someone I knew at school, though I assume it isn't the same person). Given that he was living in the same house, surely that's enough for locals to identify the entire family ?

Pretty much every story - before laying into Haringey - comments on the parallels between this case and the case of Victoria Climbie. Yet she - and the adults responsible for her death - were named right from the start. If the cases are "so similar", why can one victim and her murderers be named but not the other ?

The people who caused the death of Baby P weren't convicted of murder - but then presumably at the outset it wasn't known whether Victoria Climbie's killers would be, either. What are the benefits of not naming Baby P or those convicted of his death?

Edit Of course, given the major overhaul of child protection law since Climbie's death, it's possible that she would not now be named if the same thing happened. I've no idea though, back to Wikipedia...

Comments

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

Siblings?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I've no idea - reports haven't mentioned any (which they presumably wouldn't). It's a reasonable theory, though I suspect anyone who knew a sibling would work it out, and to anyone who didn't it wouldn't vastly matter.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Perhaps there are siblings who were adopted a while ago but haven't been found yet through the maze of foster homes, and don't need to find out through the media.

[octalbunny.livejournal.com]

I've seen somewhere that the mother was recently pregnant while in prison. Can't remember where, but it was a newspaper/mainstream news website.

Edit:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1085574/Social-workers-wanted-let-Baby-Ps-mother-child-jail-safeguard-human-rights.html

[ebee.livejournal.com]

Cant be named due to age and risk of assualt- ie they still are in the community.

[cocacolasurfer.livejournal.com]

Surely thats not a legal reason though. Legal reasons are usually for protecting the case from falling through at court or ensuring there is no mis-trial.

Eventually, after the trial, convicted or not convicted there names would be released. Seems to be a lot of trouble to protect the identities of people you already have in custody (I assume they are not out on bail, I haven't actually been following the case very closely).

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

If the media find them and do the usual character assassination thing, it would then be quite difficult to find jurors.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Possibly one or both of the parents are under 18.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

It's because the mother and boyfriend have a child together, as said above. That child's identity needs protecting at this stage and therefore so do they. It's possible (since it may be adopted) that we will learn their identities at any appeal stage - but then again, maybe not. Darren Harkin was not named until he escaped from prison a secure hospital and re-offended, even though he reached 18 2 years before that occurred.

Victoria Climbie's aunt would not have the same protection and thus would be named.

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

Facebook vigilantes identify mother of Baby P, says last Saturday's Independent.

(Brought to my attention when someone from my school joined one of these groups.)