Protest as Bulger parole panel meets to consider freeing killers

Protesters gathered outside the London headquarters of the Parole Board yesterday while panel representatives met one of the killers of James Bulger to consider his release from custody.

Jon Venables' hearing ­ at a secret location in the north of England ­ is likely to continue into today.

Robert Thompson, his accomplice in the murder of two-year-old James, will start a similar meeting tomorrow. The pair could be freed within weeks if the panel decides they are no longer a risk.

Members of the Mothers Against Murder and Aggression pressure group gathered at 5.45am to protest outside the Parole Board's headquarters. A spokeswoman, Dee Warner, said: "This is a last-ditch plea to the Parole Board for common sense that has been lacking so far in this case. We have literally had hundreds of letters and faxes from all over the world in support of what we are doing. Not one person is going to want these boys living next door to them."

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, in effect ended the boys' tariff ­ the minimum period they must spend in custody ­ last October, ruling that it would not be beneficial for them to spend time in the "corrosive atmosphere" of an adult prison.

The teenagers were also granted an open-ended High Court injunction by Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, protecting their anonymity when they are freed from detention. Mark Leech, chief executive of the ex-offenders' charity Unlock, said: "The time has come for these two young men to be released."

Mr Leech, who met both Venables and Thompson three years ago, added: "They did not come across as the ogres that many people make them out to be. They just seemed like normal teenage boys ... There is no prospect in my view that they will reoffend."

The two killers, who are both 19 in August, were 10 years old when they abducted James from the Strand shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993. They dragged him to a nearby railway line where they tortured him and left him to die.

The Parole Board panel will scrutinise psychiatric reports and studies as well as written representations from the boys and James's parents.

James's mother, Denise Fergus, predicted the killers' identities would be posted on the internet if they left custody. Mrs Fergus said: "It doesn't matter how much the authorities spend trying to protect Venables and Thompson, it will be impossible for them to keep their identities a secret from girlfriends they meet in the future, or drinking friends.

"In a moment of weakness, they will want to tell someone what they have done. These people will take the first opportunity to ensure that the killers are identified and their photographs are taken."