14 Feb 2010

Name suppression in Christchurch homicide questioned

10:02 pm on 14 February 2010

A prominent blogger has described a name suppression order for a man believed to be linked with a Christchurch homicide as futile.

The 40-year-old man appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Thursday, the same day police discovered the body of Vanessa Pickering on the Port Hills.

The man has interim name suppression, but was named earlier last week by police who were trying to locate him in connection with Ms Pickering's disappearance.

His name has also been published on pages of the social networking site Facebook, as well as major news media websites.

The blogger David Farrar says it's futile to expect the public to forget the man's name given the publicity surrounding the case.

He says the judiciary needs to be aware of the limitations of suppression orders in high profile cases.