CHILDREN found guilty of murder should automatically be named, campaigners urged last night.
Calls are mounting for two 12-year-olds found guilty of the brutal machete murder of a stranger to be identified when they are sentenced.
They hacked unarmed stranger Shawn Seesahai, 19, to death with a machete in playing fields in Wolverhampton in November last year.
On Monday, they became the youngest to be convicted of murder since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged 11,
were found guilty in 1993 of killing toddler James Bulger in Liverpool.
Julie Taylor, whose grandson Liam was stabbed to death by a gang of thugs, is among those wanting a change in the law to remove anonymity for anyone under 18 who deliberately kills.
Mrs Taylor said: “When I heard about 12-year-olds murdering someone it had me in tears. But they should be named.
“There should be a change in the law so that anyone convicted of murder, including children, is named. There should be no hiding
or anonymity.
“These 12-year-olds knew what they were doing if you look at the stuff they sent and posted. Why should they get protection? They need to come down harder on them.”
One of the three who murdered Liam Taylor outside a pub in 2020 was 17 and was only named when he turned 18.
Mrs Taylor now raises funds for bleed control kits and works with schools and MPs to deter youths from knife crime.
Former Met Police officer Steve Perkins said: “Anonymity only seems to serve the offender. Unless there are compelling grounds to oppose naming them, it should be the norm. If they are old enough to commit these heinous crimes, they are old enough to be
named. The justice system seems to be geared up for the defendant and rarely for victims.”
There is no automatic anonymity for children in crown court criminal trials but judges always put in place orders preventing their identification until they reach 18.
Judges would lift these orders upon an application by the media for the most serious offences such as murders and rapes.
With so many children now facing murder trials, there have been several cases where judges have refused to lift the anonymity.
This includes the case of the 14-year-old killer of Ava White in Liverpool in 2021, when Mrs Justice Yip said identifying him put him and his siblings at risk.
Judge Yip later allowed the naming on exceptional grounds of 16-year-olds Eddie Ratcliffe and Scarlett Jenkinson, who killed Brianna Ghey, 16, in February last year.
Mrs Justice Amanda Tipples is due to decide if the two 12-year-olds should be named in preparation for the sentence next month.
On Wednesday Policing Minister Chris Philp said they should be named.
He said: “In exceptional cases the public interest may well be served by doing that to understand a bit more about the background to this.”
The Home Office, Ministry of Justice and CPS said they could not comment on any potential law changes in the runup to the election.
We contacted the main political parties and received responses from Labour, the Lib Dems and Green Party, who all said they had no plans to change the law.
