Newspapers drop fight on killer's anonymity

Two national newspaper groups said yesterday they would no longer contest a High Court attempt by the child killer Mary Bell to extend an anonymity order protecting her and her daughter for life.

Lawyers for Mirror Group Newspapers and News Group, which publishes The Sun and News of the World, said they would not oppose the injunction but reserved the right to return to court.

The newspapers had been named as defendants in the action brought by Bell, who achieved notoriety at the age of 11 when she killed two boys, aged three and four, in Tyneside in 1968.

Lady Justice Butler-Sloss, sitting in the Family Division of the High Court in London, adjourned the case yesterday after hearing new evidence had been brought forward to support the application for lifetime anonymity.

Bell, who lives under an assumed identity, and her daughter were granted anonymity in 1998. That injunction expired in May this year when the child reached 18 but was temporarily extended. No new date has been set for the resumed hearing.