MUM TAKES POLICE TO COURT OVER SON’S ‘SEXTING’

JUDICIAL REVIEW TO DECIDE IF FORCE SHOULD DELETE RECORD OF 14-YEAR-OLD WHO SENT PHOTO

A MUM taking police to court to force them to delete a record about her son sending a naked photograph of himself to a girl insists ‘sexting’ is ‘how teenagers flirt these days.’

A judge ruled that there will be a judicial review into the case - which means the mum and son, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have passed the first hurdle.

The 14-year-old boy from Greater Manchester sent the ‘sext’ via social media messaging site Snapchat to the girl, who showed it to other people at school.

The High Court sitting at Manchester’s Civil Justice Centre, heard the boy had sent the message thinking it would self-delete. However, the girl took a screenshot before passing it on.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) took no action against the boy, other than informing his mother, but it’s understood a police officer recorded the details on the police local database in 2015.

The case is documented as ‘taking obscene photos’ and ‘obscene publications.’

Mr Justice Kerr gave the go-ahead for a judicial review in the case against the Chief Constable of GMP to decide whether the boy has a human rights argument for his name to be removed from Manchester’s police database.

Arguing for the family, barrister Amanda Weston said the impact on the boy’s future could be ‘immense.’

She said it could affect future education and employment - particularly where potential employers seek CRB checks - and this was causing anxiety both for the boy and his family.

But defending GMP’s right to keep the data, Charlotte Ventham said there were a ‘myriad reasons’ why storing the details could be worthwhile.

Among them was the example whereby if in future the picture were to fall into the wrong hands as part of a ‘cache’ of indecent images and police needed to determine whether the boy had been a victim of abuse.

She also argued that a human rights argument did not stand up against the importance of the police keeping citizens’ details in the interests of justice.

It was heard the boy’s details would be passed to an employer only after weighing up the risk he presented against the impact it would have on the boy.

But Mr Justice Kerr upheld the case on the basis it could already be interfering with the boy’s ‘formative teenage years.’

He accepted that the record may have been deleted when the boy became an adult regardless, but accepted the risk his prospects could be ‘unfairly blighted’ and granted permission for a judicial review. The family has brought the case with support from charity Just for Kids Law.