An eminent barrister and judge whose conviction for harassing his ex-wife and her new partner was kept secret by a gagging order can be named, the High Court ruled yesterday.

Lincoln Crawford, 61, a government race adviser and Crown Court Recorder, was given a conditional discharge in September 2005 for harassing Bronwen Jenkins and Dominic Buttimore. His conviction could not be reported because he successfully argued in court that publicity would be harmful to their two children.

But two High Court judges ruled yesterday after submissions from The Times that the anonymity order should never have been made.

Lord Justice Thomas, sitting alongside Mrs Justice Dobbs, told the court: “There is no evidence of any particular harm to these children, other than the considerable embarrassment that may be felt in the playground and elsewhere over the fact that their father has been convicted of a criminal offence.”

He added that the barrister, a man of “impressive character and impeccable background”, had sought anonymity in the interests of the wellbeing of his children, but everyone was “equal under the law”. Mr Crawford, a former member of the Parole Board and the Commission for Racial Equality, married Ms Jenkins, a solicitor at City firm Irwin Mitchell, in June 1999. They had already been together for several years and had one child.

They were divorced in 2004 in “highly acrimonious” circumstances, the court heard, after Ms Jenkins had embarked on an affair with another solicitor at her firm.

Mr Crawford left the marriage with 29 per cent of the value of the marital home, about £400,000. A non-molestation order was made against him. The court was told that after the divorce, Mr Crawford became obsessed with his former wife’s relationship with Mr Buttimore.

The court heard that Mr Crawford made derogatory remarks about Ms Jenkins in front of a security guard at her office in January 2005. In June 2005 he approached the couple as they got out of a taxi, described his former wife as a bitch and told Mr Buttimore: “They are my kids you will be having breakfast with.” In July that year, Mr Crawford burst into the house at 4am, took photographs and accused the couple of having sex in front of their children, the court heard. He was arrested in September 2005.

The court was told that he had followed the couple and spied on them. Mr Crawford claimed that he had taken photographs to collect evidence as part of a planned court application.

Miles Bennett, counsel for the Crown, said that the anonymity order should be lifted otherwise it would be open to abuse by others. “Barristers and part-time judges with children today, politicians tomorrow: where does it end?” he said.

Mr Crawford, appointed OBE in 1998, specialised in employment law after being called to the Bar in 1977 and was a member of the British Boxing Board of Control. In 2003, he assisted the CPS with the national appointment of Crown Prosecutors. He also appeared on numerous radio and television programmes.

Last Friday a unique five-judge Appeal Court made up of senior judges ruled that parents who committed criminal offences should not be allowed to remain anonymous, even though it might bring shame to their innocent children.

Raymond Cortis, a father of two, was named and shamed by order of the Appeal Court for downloading child porn from the internet. His identity had been kept secret to protect his children from becoming social outcasts and being subject to harassment, intimidation, bullying and violence.

The Times argued through counsel, Anthony Hudson of Doughty Street Chambers, that the order made by the High Court protecting Mr Crawford should never have been made.

The senior appeal judges discharged gagging orders on the press after ruling that the media’s Article 10 rights to “freedom of expression” under the European Convention on Human Rights outweighed the children’s Article 8 “right to privacy”.

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