ConCourt: Child victims should be protected beyond 18
Advocacy group Centre For Child Law has triumphed in its campaign to have the identities of child victims of crime protected even beyond the age of 18 years.
The Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled led that a section of the Criminal Procedure Act was unconstitutional and should be amended.
The case stems from the kidnapping case of Zephany Nurse who was abducted from the Groote Schuur Hospital as a newborn baby.
Nurse was re-united with her biological parents when she was 17.
She approached the Centre For Child Law when news of her kidnapping first broke in 2015 fearing that the media would reveal her identity when she turned 18.
Centre For Child Law attorney Lithalethemba Stwayi says the highest court in the land has also made an adult extension stating that the same protection provided to a child who is now a victim of a crime, a witness to a crime or a child offender has been extended to adulthood.
Stwayi adds that this does not mean that journalist will not be allowed to report on such stories, what it means is that they need to anonymise the child victim, offender or witness to a crime.
"Should they feel that they want to reveal the identity of the victim then they would need to apply to a competent court," says Stwayi.