Reporting On Crimes Against Children

The Children (Amendment) Act 2021 (the "Act") has been commenced, by way of the Children (Amendment) Act 2021 (Commencement) Order 2021, with effect from 7 May 2021.

Background

The Act was introduced to correct an anomaly created by section 252 of the Children Act 2001, which imposes mandatory reporting restrictions on trials relating to an offence committed against a child, or to which a child is a witness, in order to protect their identity. The courts' interpretation of that provision, which was upheld by the Court of Appeal in D.P.P. and E.C. v. The Irish Times & Others [2020 IECA 292], was not only that the provisions applied in circumstances where the child was deceased or where they had reached the age of 18 prior to the commencement of proceedings, but that the identity of the person accused of perpetrating the crime was also prohibited from being reported if it would reveal the identity of the child. Further analysis of the impact of the above case can