New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CHILDREN (CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS) ACT 1987 - SECT 15E

15E Exception where child deceased

(1) This Division does not prohibit the publication or broadcasting of the name of a deceased child with the consent of a senior available next of kin of the child.

(2) A person must not, as a senior available next of kin, give consent to the publication or broadcasting of the name of a deceased child unless it appears to the person, after making such inquiries as are reasonable in the circumstances, that no other senior available next of kin objects to the publication or broadcasting of the name.

(3) In addition, in considering whether to give consent to the publication or broadcasting of the name of a deceased child when the publication or broadcasting of the name of a brother or sister of the deceased child is prohibited under section 15A (1) (e), a senior available next of kin must--

(a) make such inquiries as are reasonable in the circumstances to obtain the views of that brother or sister regarding the publication or broadcasting of the name of the deceased child, and

(b) take into account the impact of such a publication or broadcasting on that brother or sister.

(4) A senior available next of kin who is charged with, or is convicted of, an offence to which the criminal proceedings concerned relate cannot give consent, or object, to the publication or broadcasting of the name of a deceased child as referred to in this section.

(5) If there is no senior available next of kin who can give consent to the publication or broadcasting of a deceased child's name (whether or not as a result of subsection (4)), the court concerned can give that consent if satisfied that the public interest so requires.

(6) In this section,
"senior available next of kin" of a deceased child means--

(a) a parent of the child, or

(b) if the parents of the child are dead, cannot be found, or for some other reason cannot exercise their parental responsibilities to the child--

(i) a person who, immediately before the death of the child, had parental responsibility (within the meaning of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 ) for the child, or

(ii) in the case of a child who was in the care of the Director-General of the Department of Human Services immediately before his or her death--the Director-General.