Couple behind Baby P death revealed

Tracey Connelly and her lover Steven Barker were responsible for the death of 17-month-old Peter Connelly in his blood-spattered room in August 2007.

It was also disclosed that the third defendant, Jason Owen, 37, is Barker's brother.

Media lawyer Rosalind McInnes said the case may make it easier for the press to name adults convicted of similar offences in the future.

"When in practice some information - whether it's a name or a photograph - can be reached by millions at the press of a button, and those millions know the information is there, the law risks making itself look foolish," she said.

Following the expiry of a court order giving them anonymity, it emerged that Barker brothers' past does not stop at taunting and torturing a toddler. They were also accused of assaulting their own grandmother.

Connelly, who has four other children, is the daughter of a woman with drink and drug problems. She was involved with social workers throughout her childhood and knew how to manipulate them.

She started a relationship with Peter's father, who was 17 years her senior, when she was just 16 having lied to him about her age. They went on to marry.

The Barkers - Owen changed his name after Peter's death to try to distance himself from the Baby P outrage - were charged with assaulting their grandmother Hilda Barker, 82, at her home in Whitstable, Kent, in 1995. She told police they locked her in a wardrobe to make her change her will in their favour. The case was dropped the following year, before the Barkers came to trial, after the frail grandmother died from pneumonia.

Connelly, 28, and Barker, 33, of Penshurst Road, Tottenham, north London, were sentenced in May for causing or allowing Peter's death. They could not be named until now for legal reasons, although their names and photographs have appeared on the internet. Father-of-four Owen was also jailed for the same offence, which took place while he was staying at Peter's home with his 15-year-old runaway lover.