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The Bulger case

00:00 Tue 09th Jan 2001 |

��Press Association
Murdered Jamie Bulger
THE killers of James Bulger are to have their identities protected when they are released from prison.

The High Court made the decision to protect the new identities of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson in order to protect their lives and physical well being.

Judge Dame Butler-Sloss said that�although she recognised 'the enormous importance' of upholding freedom of expression and the right of the press to publish, injunctions were necessary to restrain the media from disclosing information about the new identities, appearance or addresses of Venables and Thompson when they are released from detention.

The case may now end up in the Court of Appeal if newspapers decide to pursue the case. And the identities of the two could end up on the Internet.

Media lawyer Mark Stephens told BBC News 24 that the High Court injunction, designed to protect the anonymity of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, does not affect countries other than England and Wales.

As a result, international news organisations will be free to publish information about the pair and this information, if included in their internet editions, would then become available to people in Britain with internet access.

The two boys who killed Jamie, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson hope to win parole early this year. They pair were both aged 10 when they beat two-year-old James to death on a railway line in Liverpool in February 1993.

James Bulger's mother, Denise Fergus, believes her son's killers are getting special treatment.

Her solicitor Sean Sexton said she is 'saddened, but not surprised' by what has happened. 'It seems that new law seems to follow this case around,' he says.

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