Paroled double killer wins fight to remain anonymous

A convicted murderer sent to a psychiatric hospital has won his Supreme Court battle to keep his identity secret.

The double killer, in his 40s, who can only be referred to as "C", succeeded in his challenge to a refusal of the Court of Appeal to grant him anonymity in legal proceedings.

C, who has had mental health problems for much of his life, was released from a secure psychiatric unit last October, just days before the Supreme Court began considering his case.

The court was told the Parole Board had agreed to his release on licence, and he was in the process of changing his name to start a new life.

Lady Hale, the court's deputy president, ruled that an anonymity order was "necessary in the interests of this particular patient".

The judge described C's crime as "horrendous" and said it had caused "incalculable distress to the families of the victims".

But without anonymity there was "a very real risk that the progress he has made during his long years of treatment in hospital would be put in jeopardy and his reintegration in the community, which was an important purpose of his transfer to hospital, will not succeed".