The two Police officers who were charged with the alleged murder of former Aston Villa player, Dalian Atkinson, have been identified, as court orders that their anonymity is lifted.
The court had on Wednesday 13th November 2019 ordered the two Police officers charged in connection with the death of Dalian Atkinson be named, after a court order protecting their identity was lifted, the UK Evening Standard had reported.
The report stating further reported that the presiding 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 9th 2019.