A man complained that an article and photograph in the Bolton Evening News on 16 January 1998 identified his children as being related to someone accused of crime, in breach of Clause 10 (Innocent relatives and friends) of the Code of Practice and intruded into the childrens private lives in breach of Clause 6 (Children).

The article reported that the complainants ex-wife had received a caution from the police for fraud after exaggerating the number of Christmas presents that had been taken from her house by burglars. It was illustrated by a photograph of the complainants ex-wife together with the couples three children. The complainant objected to the use of this photograph since it linked his children to the incident with which they were not connected. He believed that publication represented an intrusion into the privacy of the children.

The newspaper was asked to respond and said that it could not have avoided identification of the children since they had been " openly paraded in front of the camera" by the complainant's ex-wife at the time that she had claimed the presents had been stolen, before the caution.

The Commission believed that in this case the photograph - however legitimate its use might have been in other stories - clearly identified the children as being related to someone accused of crime and viewed it as an unjustified intrusion.

The complaint was upheld.