A British newspaper is facingpossible prosecution for printing details on the location of two boys who brutally killed toddler Jamie Bulger and now have secret identities to protect them from revenge attacks.
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Jamie Bulger
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Britain's Attorney General said the
Manchester Evening News
article appeared to breach an injunction protecting Jon Venables and Robert Thompson who abducted, tortured and then killed the toddler beside a railway track in Liverpool.
The investigation began a day after a parole board said Thompson and Venables would soon be freed after serving less than nine years for the murder.
The Manchester Evening Newsdenied deliberately breaching the injunction and was in talks with the Attorney General.
But the case underlined how difficult it will be to keep secret the new names, addresses and backgrounds given to prevent vowed vigilante attacks by the public and Bulger family members.
Home Secretary Mr David Blunkett said their lives would be at risk if they lost their anonymity.
In a statement, the dead boy's mother, Ms Denise Fergus, said that no matter where they go, someone out there is waiting.
The murdered toddler's uncle, Mr Jimmy Bulger, defended the paper's decision to publish the details.
In a statement he said: "With all my heartfelt thanks, at least you have had the balls to stand up and be counted, not like the rest of them."
Britain is still haunted by the grainy closed-circuit TV images which show Venables and Thompson casually leading James off by the hand after his mother lost sight of him for a moment in the Strand shopping mall in the northwestern town of Bootle.
After the two killed him they left his body on a railway track where it was run over by a passing train.
The 1993 killing of two-year-old James led to calls for his child killers to be jailed for life.
After their release Thompson and Venables will be under close scrutiny by probation officers and subject to a swift return to prison in the event of wrongdoing.
Another condition of their release is that they make no attempt to contact each other, or the family of their victim.
They will not be able to return to the Merseyside region, which includes Liverpool, without permission from authorities.