A ban on revealing the identity of a woman charged with murdering her baby is to be re-examined.
Reporting restrictions were imposed amid claims that naming her would increase the risk of her taking her own life. But the 31-year-old defendant has now been moved from a psychiatric unit to normal prison custody.
Belfast Magistrates’ Court has heard the new status may be linked to a potential change in her mental health status.
Requesting an updated medical report, District Judge Fiona Bagnall said: "That development is bound to have some impact, I would imagine, on where we are with the reporting restrictions."
The accused was arrested by detectives investigating the infant’s death following an incident in the city nearly a year ago.
She was charged with murder and initially detained under the Mental Health Act.
A temporary ban on publishing her identity was put in place amid fears it could lead to her trying to take her own life.
In evidence to the court a consultant psychiatrist who treated the accused said she is suffering from severe mental illness.
Naming her in the media would be the “tipping point” for her to attempting to take her own life, it was claimed. Even though staff at the psychiatric unit were watching the defendant 24 hours a day the doctor insisted opportunities could still arise.
A press challenge to the anonymity order centred on the public’s right to know full details in the case.
Counsel for the Belfast Telegraph’s publishers argued that the whole point of reporting criminal cases is to publicise who has been charged with the most “heinous” of offences.
It was also contended that under the hospital regime any risk would not be increased through being named. In a ruling last September Judge Bagnall confirmed the ban based on the medical evidence. At that stage she said the reporting restrictions could be reviewed if and when the defendant’s mental state improves. Returning to the case today, she said the change in circumstances required the issue to be re-examined. A defence lawyer insisted the woman is still at risk of taknig her own life.
But Judge Bagnall signaled that an up to date medical assessment should be completed within six weeks.
If no report is completed she told the defence it would still have to demonstrate how someone moved from a mental health institution into the normal prison environment remains at a real and immediate risk of suicide.