Mary Bell in court to plead for anonymity

Mary Bell, who at 11 achieved notoriety for killing two young boys, will go to the High Court this week to try to preserve her right to a lifetime of anonymity.

With her daughter now 18, Bell is no longer able to hide behind a court order that bars the media from publishing her picture, her name, her address – any detail that would jeopardise her new identity.

An interim identification ban is now in place, but Bell's lawyers will plead for a lifelong extension. The hearing is expected to take place on Thursday.

Bell was convicted of the manslaughter of four-year-old Martin Brown and Brian Howe, aged three, in 1968. The case had largely dropped out of the public eye, but was revived in 1995 with the publication of Cries Unheard, Bell's biography, written by Gitta Sereny.

There was widespread condemnation when it was reported that Bell had received £50,000 for her help with the book, a claim that was subsequently denied. The biography revealed that Bell had been sexually abused by clients of her mother, a prostitute who specialised in sado-masochism.

Journalists hunted Bell down to a south coast town where she was living with her boyfriend and daughter.

Last night Ms Sereny pleaded for Bell to be left alone: "Mary Bell is desperate to have some peace. It has gone on so long. She was only 11, she was a different person then."

But June Richardson, the mother of Martin Brown, said Bell had lost her right to anonymity by collaborating with Ms Sereny.

"If she had never written that book, then I could have got on with my life. She threw away her anonymity by writing that book."