The shootings of father and son Gary and Joshua Dunmore in Cambridgeshire villages only six miles apart from each other was one of the biggest stories to come out of the county this year. When the murders first happened, we made sure that we covered as much of the story as we could with live blogs, breakouts, photo stories, Facebook Lives and follow-up pieces all coming within the next few weeks.

A big part of my role during this coverage was attending the sentencing of Stephen Alderton in October 2023, who pleaded guilty to the murders of both men at an earlier hearing. Before I went to Cambridge Crown Court, I made sure I familiarized myself with as much about the case that had already been made, including the charges and the names of the victims, so I knew what to expect on the day and how I was best going to write the court report once the sentencing had finished.

In the sentencing, I had to ensure that I was careful not to name the son of Joshua Dunmore as at the time, there was an automatic reporting restriction prohibiting him from being named as an anonymity order had been made during the hearing. I also had to ensure that anything I wrote in my article was fair, accurate and contemporaneous to give us qualified privilege.

The sentencing took place over two days after it was adjourned on the first day so the judge could reflect fully on what he heard. This caused concern over whether the information I would write would be contemporaneous, but the details were repeated the following day, with the judge going over the full facts of the case, before handing down the sentence, which was later turned around into a quick court snap to give our readers an overview of the key facts and to reflect what was said in the hearing.

Once it had concluded, I wrote a breakout of the sentencing, all of which contained information that was said in court on the day. Josh’s mother also read out a victim statement outside the court building, which was included in the piece, along with details of the prosecution, mitigation and judges’ final comments. There were some initial concerns over whether the statement of the defendant being called ‘a coward’ should be used in the headline, but as it was said within the court precincts by someone concerned in the case, it was decided that it was safe to use.

In total, the article garnered an engagement time of more than three minutes, with thousands of page views within the first hour of being published, showing just how much interest the murder sentencing and overall case generated across the community.