The faces of undercover intelligence agents from MI-5, the United Kingdom's domestic security service, cannot be sketched when they testify in a terrorism trial—even if they don wigs and light makeup, a federal judge has ruled.

Eastern District Judge Raymond Dearie (See Profile) granted the prosecution's request Monday (See Motion), telling the sketch artists to draw a “blank face” and “generic hair” though they could otherwise depict the scene accurately.

Ruling from the bench, Dearie said he was well within his authority to forbid any sketching, but he said he was not going to do that. Omitting faces and drawing generic hair, under the circumstances, was an appropriated resolution of the issue, the judge said.