Two police officers who were charged in connection with the death of ex-footballer Dalian Atkinson have today been named after a court order protecting their identity was lifted.
Judge Simon Drew overturned the Contempt of Court Act order, allowing the naming of West Mercia Police Constables Benjamin Monk and Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith.
On Thursday last week, Monk had been charged with murder while Bettley-Smith was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Both officers were present at the hearing at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday, during which their lawyers conceded anonymity could not be justified.
Instead, they argued their home addresses should not be revealed in media reports.
Atkinson, who was most well known from his time at Aston Villa in the early 1990s, died after being Tasered near his father’s home in Telford in August 2016.
He went into cardiac arrest in an ambulance on the way to hospital and medics were unable to save him.
Monk and Bettley-Smith had initially been granted anonymity after it was argued there were risks to their safety.
Counsel acting for six media organisations subsequently argued the anonymity orders were an "unjustified" and serious interference with common law open justice principles.
A plea and trial preparation hearing in the pair's case has been scheduled for December 9.
