Mother of James Bulger does not want killer's new identities to be revealed

The mother of murdered toddler James Bulger has said she does not want the new identities of his killers to be released because she does not want "blood on my hands".

Jon Venables and Robert Thompson have been living anonymously with new identities since being released from a life sentence for the kidnap, torture and murder of two-year-old James 25 years ago when they were aged 10.

James's father and uncle have launched a legal challenge against Venables keeping his lifelong anonymity as he has since been convicted twice, most recently in February.

But James's mother Denise Fergus fears it could mean "people will be looking out for them".

Speaking to Anna Foster on BBC Radio 5 live, she said: "Eight years in a young offenders (institution) is no sentence at all. Especially when it concerned them two, they got the best of everything.

Venables and Thompson were granted lifelong anonymity by a High Court judge.

The new legal challenge, brought by Ralph and Jimmy Bulger and currently in the High Court, relates to an order originally granted in 2001.

Details of their application were aired at the High Court for the first time at a hearing in London on Tuesday.

Solicitor-advocate Robin Makin, representing the father and uncle, said the injunction was granted on the basis that Venables was rehabilitated and would not reoffend.

But he has since been convicted and sent back to jail over indecent images of children.

In February, he was jailed for three years and four months after admitting surfing the dark web for extreme child abuse images and possessing a "sickening" paedophile manual.

He was charged after police found more than 1,000 indecent images on his computer.

It was the second time he had been caught with such images and when he was arrested he told police he was plagued by "stupid urges".