High Court flushes out anonymous police blogger

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 16 Jun 2009 at 14:18

Anonymous bloggers nationwide have come one step closer to being outed today, after the High Court ruled that they have no automatic right to anonymity.

The ruling came in the case of detective constable Richard Horton, who wrote a popular blog called NightJack. On the site Horton gave confidential details of cases, criticised senior politicians and offered advice to those under police investigation.

The site attracted half a million users each week, received an Orwell Prize for political writing and spurred several publishing offers.

However, despite anonymising some details of the cases he mentioned, the blog was an infraction of police regulations.

His identity was unearthed by The Times, but Horton tried to obtain an injunction to prevent the newspaper naming him. That request was denied today by Mr Justice Eady, who said that "blogging is essentially a public rather than a private activity".

The website in question has been deleted, and Horton has received a written warning from Lancashire Constabulary, where he worked.