Court upholds 'surprising' restriction on identifying mother who smothered her child

In a written judgment the president of the court, Mr Justice George Birmingham, said it is "almost beyond argument" that the court proceedings were in respect of an offence against a child.

The Court of Appeal has rejected an application by several media outlets to be allowed to name a woman who smothered her three-year-old child to death with a pillow.

The woman was found not guilty of murdering her child by reason of insanity. Before her trial began High Court judge, Mr Justice Michael White, ordered that the deceased child should not be identified and, as a consequence, the woman cannot be named as to do so would identify the dead child.