Woolf says society must protect Bulger killers

England's most senior judge has said that the decision to release James Bulger's murderers and to protect them in society was right.

Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, also said he thinks juries are a vital pillar of our judicial system.

He gave his views in a Radio 4 interview with Sue MacGregor for a programmed called Fifty Years On, due to be broadcast on Wednesday.

Lord Woolf said that although Robert Thompson and Jon Venables had committed a very serious crime when they killed two-year-old James, they had now grown up, changed and had to be released back into society.

He said: "Children can do things when they are children which they would never do in their later life.

"I have insight into what happened to those two youngsters, because I saw reports which revealed how they developed while they were in custody. The reports illustrate that children grow up."

The boys were 10-years-old when they abducted two-year-old James from the Strand shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1993.

They won their freedom in separate Parole Board hearings in June last year after spending just over eight years in secure accommodation. They were released with new identities.

Lord Woolf said: "It would not bring baby Bulger back to life if one or other of those young men had in turn been killed."

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in the Bulger case that it was wrong for the Home Secretary to intervene in setting minimum tariff's for offenders under the age of 18.

Last year, the then Home Secretary Jack Straw said he would be bound by the decision made by the Lord Chief Justice on the minimum term to be served by Venables and Thompson.

In the wide-ranging interview, Lord Woolf also indicated that he would be against any move to downgrade the role of juries.

He said: "They juries are a huge safeguard to the public as a whole. I think that, so far as criminal proceedings are concerned, we are absolutely right to cling to our juries and our jury form of trial."

Since the interview was recorded, the Government has announced plans to abolish juries in serious fraud trials and in cases where members of a jury have been intimidated.