One of the country’s leading judges insists the Press must be allowed into family courts to prevent miscarriages of justice.

Sir James Munby, head of the family courts, said that without ‘the jealous vigilance of an informed media’, families will suffer irreversible wrongs.

Yesterday, he cited two cases in which social workers wrongly seized children from their parents as ‘a terrible warning’ of what can happen when courts operate behind closed doors.

Sir James, who is president of the Family Division of the High Court, also called for the opening up of the Court of Protection – the secretive court which settles the affairs of those who have lost the capacity to decide for themselves.

He said the routine ban on journalists at its hearings must go.

His call comes seven months after the Daily Mail revealed that a judge at the Court of Protection had secretly ordered a woman to be jailed because she defied his ruling by trying to get her father out of a care home where she thought his life was in danger.

Wanda Maddocks was imprisoned without her name or any details of her contempt of court being made known to the public, and without a lawyer to represent her. Senior judges later said no-one should ever again be jailed in secret.

The area of secrecy which resides in family courts is terrible.

I'm not sure if opening it up to journalists would be the solution however something needs to be done to prevent the injustices that are perpetually carried out in these courts.