Adrian Hilterman: when your occupation is suppressed but not your name

NB This post has been updated here

A "prominent public servant" who kicked and hit his GP wife was convicted of assault. He had his occupation suppressed, but anyone with Google can find out who Adrian Hilterman works for. His wife was a doctor who did some work for the police, and made contact with the police as early as 2001 about the abuse.

But the police did nothing until last year.

This woman was scared that if he got convicted for assault he'd lose his job.Then last year their marriage fell apart when he refused his wife access to his salary. The day it fell apart she pressed charges because she knew she would never get back access to his salary, and therefore she was not afraid of him losing his job. He was charged shortly afterwards and had a protection order placed on him. He repeatedly breached the protection order. She repeatedly complained to police - that wasn't hard, she worked for them. Police eventually upheld the breach but took at least six months to tell Deborah Hilterman that it had been upheld. That was convenient, given the time limit for prosecuting a suppression breach is six months. Police in effect prevented her from pressing charges on breach of suppression even though she had formally pressed assault charges.

A while back the judge in this case lifted suppression of a persons name because the victim wanted it published. Given that Deborah Hilterman is holding out for the judge to reveal her former husband's occupation, why did the judge make a different decision this time?

It was because of where this man works, that's why. And the wishes of the place of employment are more important than the wishes of the victim. It will be lifted at sentencing when everyone who wanted to know this mans occupation will already know - but then the man may not be working for this place of employment then.

How convenient.