Practical Photography

Belfast newspaper Sunday Life, the Independent News & Media , has been banned from publishing photos of Kenneth Callaghan who is being released after 21 years in prison for murder.

Kenneth Callaghan was jailed for life in 1988 for the murder of the 21 year old Carol Gouldie,the convict had been on day release in a cafe and shopping centre when he was snapped, he leaned the newspaper planned to publish these and decided to take legal action against the newspaper.

Callaghan moved from prison into a prisoner assessment as part of a pre-release scheme unit that replicates conditions in the outside world, including day release.

The judge, Justice Stephens, did not find that the publication of an unpixelated photograph would lead to a “real and immediate risk” to the life of Callaghan.

However, he said that background articles published by the newspaper had “lacked any balance” as to the supervision by authorities of Callaghan in the community.

He also said that the “hostility engendered by the tone and content of those articles” would lead to “disruption to his home, his private life and his family connections through acts of violence, if his precise whereabouts were made known through the publication of such photographs”.

Stephens assessed the “balancing exercise” required to judge the right to a newspaper group’s freedom of expression and Callaghan’s right to respect for his private and family life and his home.

He found that, based on evidence presented, that Callaghan posed a “low to medium risk” of reoffending without the publication of photographs and that there was “proper” supervision by authorities.

The judge concluded that publication of the photographs could disrupt Callaghan’s private life and increase the risk of him harming the public.

He said his ruling was “a proportionate response and necessary in a democratic society”.