Katrin Welker
On 27 January 2016, the Supreme Court granted a released double murderer's request to stay anonymous ([2014] EWCA Civ 1009). The murderer was suffering from severe mental illness for a long time, was convicted of murdering two persons in 1998 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 11 years. It was a particularly savage killing which had caused untold suffering to the victims and has continued to cause great grief to their families.
In August 2000, the plaintiff had been transferred to a high security psychiatric hospital, following an instruction of the Secretary of State. In…