Mum of James Bulger says Primark kidnap case made her 'relive' her own ordeal

The mother of murdered toddler James Bulger has told how the kidnap of a two-year-old girl from a Newcastle store brought back the terrible memories of her own ordeal.

James was also two when he was snatched from a Liverpool shopping centre by 10-year-old boys Jon Venables and Robert Thompson 23 years ago.

On Tuesday two teenage girls admitted kidnapping a toddler from Primark on Northumberland Street, Newcastle, while a relative shopped.

The young girl was reunited with her mother an hour and 45 minutes later after she was tracked by CCTV camera operators to a park, three miles away in Gosforth.

James Bulger’s mum, Denise Fergus, appeared on ITV’s Loose Women on Wednesday, where she was asked by presenter Coleen Nolan if the Newcastle case brought back what happened to her more than two decades ago.

Speaking about the Newcastle kidnap, she said: “It absolutely does, just hearing stories like this is horrible.“I still can’t believe this has happened again. I just have to relive it all.”

Denise went on to offer her sympathies to the parents of the Newcastle toddler, saying she knows what they must have been going through.

She said: “Every minute without your child just feels like an hour, you’re just so desperate to get your child back . You’re just in a world of your own, don’t know where to go or what to do. It’s just horrible.”

The teenagers in the Primark case, aged 13 and 14, will be sentenced at a later date.