{"id":55807,"date":"2025-10-02T07:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T07:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/55807\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T07:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T07:17:08","slug":"northland-leader-loses-bid-to-keep-name-secret-in-assault-case-but-still-cant-be-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/55807\/","title":{"rendered":"Northland leader loses bid to keep name secret in assault case but still can\u2019t be named"},"content":{"rendered":"

Name suppression was declined, but an interim order to keep the name secret was granted to allow a chance for appeal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McDonald had tried to argue that the person, their family and employers would suffer extreme hardship from publication.<\/p>\n

Because of the person already being the brunt of online harassment, they would suffer a real safety risk and disproportionate reputational harm from being named, he said.<\/p>\n

Both the police prosecutor and Northern Advocate publisher NZME opposed continuing name suppression, saying there was high public interest in the case.<\/p>\n

Judge Tomlinson said the bar for name suppression was very high.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe starting point is, of course, open justice: it is vitally important in a democracy to have free speech and the right of the media to report judicial proceedings fairly and accurately.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Judge Tomlinson said the person had served the Northland community, publishing their name would not cause extreme hardship to them, their family or their employers.<\/p>\n

He took a swipe at online harassment, saying it was despicable and wrong, but said ending name suppression was unlikely to make such harassment any worse. <\/p>\n

The judge said continued name suppression was declined, but he allowed McDonald a chance to appeal this decision.<\/p>\n

This means the person\u2019s name and identifying features must be kept secret for at least 20 working days, to enable a fair appeal to the High Court.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the person is on bail until October 17, when the assault charge will be considered in court again.<\/p>\n

If the person is found guilty, the charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison or a fine of up to $4000.<\/p>\n

Denise Piper is a news reporter<\/a> for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Name suppression was declined, but an interim order to keep the name secret was granted to allow a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17704,5195,682,1040,3013,2068,1121,13239,8344,15159,127,18791,78,809,13489,11517,13617,10136,111,43,139,1067,69,6791,9095,6100,13618,165,61,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-55807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-assault","9":"tag-be","10":"tag-being","11":"tag-bid","12":"tag-but","13":"tag-cant","14":"tag-case","15":"tag-charged","16":"tag-common","17":"tag-denied","18":"tag-despite","19":"tag-fighting","20":"tag-in","21":"tag-keep","22":"tag-leader","23":"tag-loses","24":"tag-name","25":"tag-named","26":"tag-new-zealand","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-newzealand","29":"tag-northland","30":"tag-nz","31":"tag-prominent","32":"tag-secret","33":"tag-still","34":"tag-suppression","35":"tag-their","36":"tag-to","37":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}