12 JULY 1957, Page 8

MR. JOHN GORDON still writes in the Sunday Express. A

few days ago a boy of fifteen was convicted at the Old Bailey of murder and was sentenced to be 'detained during Her Majesty's pleasure.' The judge at the trial asked the news- papers—out of consideration to the parents—not to publish the name, and the newspapers complied with this request—a decision which Mr. Gordon, who is not easily shocked, described as 'shockingly, wrong,' and 'heinously wrong,' on the good egali- tarian grounds that the parents should not be granted 'a privilege which the family of a violent thief' would not receive. Mr. Gordon then pub- lished the name. If anybody else had done this there might be some doubt as to whether he was not a humbug and a hypocrite, but there is no doubt about Mr. Gordon.

PHAROS