A NAME-and-shame scheme to tackle anti-social behaviour in Worcester should now be rolled out after the High Court ruled the tactic lawful, according to city MP Mike Foster.

Mr Foster has championed the introduction of the city's Shop A Yob strategy of distributing leaflets containing the details and photographs of youths under anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs).

But a human rights challenge to a similar scheme in London threatened the legality of the scheme - until a senior judge yesterday dismissed protests that the move was an infringement of the youths' right to privacy.

Backed by civil rights group Liberty, three offenders subject to ASBOs sought a judicial review on the grounds that their details had been "unnecessarily" distributed to thousands of homes and placed on the internet.

But Lord Justice Kennedy said that ASBOs would be ineffective unless they could be publicised with the photographs, names and "at least partial" addresses of the offenders.

"Not only do the readers need to know against whom orders have been made, but those responsible for publicity must leave no room for mis-identification," he said.

The Shop A Yob scheme was unveiled in January in a bid to enable residents to identify yobs who break the terms of their curfew and report them to the police.

Breaching the terms of an ASBO is a criminal offence.

Worcester MP Mike Foster said: "It's clear that some do-gooders wanted to stop local councils taking tough action against yobs and the courts have rightly thrown it out.

"So the Shop A Yob scheme that I suggested in Worcester should now be given the green light to go ahead - rolled out across Worcester so that the public are empowered to be able to lawfully tackle yobs."

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