John Short v The Falkland Islands
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Irwin LJ,Lewis J |
| Judgment Date | 21 February 2020 |
| Neutral Citation | [2020] EWHC 439 (Admin) |
| Docket Number | Case No: CO/2136/2019 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Date | 21 February 2020 |
[2020] EWHC 439 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
DIVISIONAL COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Lord Justice Irwin
AND
THE HONOURABLE Mr Justice Lewis
Case No: CO/2136/2019
Martin Henley (instructed by Noble Solicitors) for the Appellant
Rachel Kapila (instructed by Crown Prosecution Service) for the Respondent
Hearing dates: 30 January 2020
Approved Judgment
Irwin LJ and
This ruling concerns extradition proceedings in which the Government of Falkland Islands seeks the extradition of the Appellant in respect of alleged sexual offences involving two complainants. The District Judge in giving her judgment anonymised the name of the appellant, his wife and children, and the two complainants. During the hearing of the appeal the names of those persons were not referred to and they were referred to by initials. In our judgments on the appeal, we have continued to anonymise the names of the wife and children of the Appellant and the two complainants.
Judgment was reserved at the conclusion of the appeal. An issue arose as to the power of the court to restrict publication of identities. We invited submissions from the press but, at that stage, no members of the press were in court. We ordered that no report of the proceedings be published which identifies the Appellant, his wife, or his children or the complainants until further order and set a timetable for written submissions on the legal basis for such an order. We have received written submissions on behalf of the Appellant and the Respondent.
First, no statutory provision has been identified which would provide a power for the making of an order for anonymity in this case. Secondly, both parties agree that the High Court, hearing a statutory appeal against the making of an extradition order, has power to make orders to avoid an unjustified interference with a person's rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR”): see In Re Attorney General's Reference (No. 3 of 1999) [2015] 1 A.C. 145, per Lord Phillips at paragraph 2, per Lord Hope at paragraph 13, and per Lord Brown at 54. In considering whether to make any order imposing a reporting restriction we bear in mind Article 10 of the ECHR and section 12 of the Human Rights Act 1998.
In relation to the Appellant, we recognise that, even if a jurisdiction exists, it would only be in exceptional circumstances that reporting restrictions should be imposed preventing the identification of a person accused of crimes: see In re Press Association [2013] 1 W.L.R. 1979. We take a similar approach in relation to extradition proceedings. The policy restrictions which determine that criminal defendants should be...
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Stephen Bullman v High Court in Dublin (Ireland)
...during her lifetime. As the proceedings are in Ireland, there is no such prohibition. However, in Short v Falkland Islands [2020] EWHC 439 (Admin), [2020] 4 WLR 68, the Divisional Court (Irwin LJ and Lewis J) held at [6] that an order could be made protecting the identity of a complainant......
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BM v Republic of Ireland (No 2)
...3 On 21 February 2020, the Divisional Court (Irwin LJ and Lewis J) handed down judgment in John Short and the Falkland Islands [2020] [EWHC 439] (Admin) (“ Short No. 2”). The Divisional Court held that:- “4. …. it would only be in exceptional circumstances that reporting restrictions shoul......