The distraught family of murdered toddler James Bulger are considering a possible legal challenge to yesterday's court decision which could see his schoolboy killers released early in the new year. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, ruled the tariff, or minimum sentence, to be served by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, now both aged 18, at an end - so paving the way for their release on parole, possibly within months.
Lord Woolf stressed that release would not end the punishment of Thompson and Ven ables, who were aged 10 when they savagely murdered the two-year-old James on a railway line in Liverpool in February, 1993. "Their crime is not one which is expunged by the Rehabilitation Act. They will be on license and liable to be recalled to custody for the rest of their lives if they do not comply with the terms of their license," he said.
James' mother, now Mrs Denise Fergus, said she was "shocked" and "disgusted" by the ruling: "Thompson and Venables never gave James a chance. But now it is like they are being rewarded for their crime. They have got away with murder, and the lawyers and judges are bending over backwards to look after their interests."
And as the police officer who brought the child killers to justice declared himself "flabbergasted" by the ruling, lawyers for James' father, Mr Ralph Bulger, said they would seek a Judicial Review of the Lord Chief's decision and press the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, to establish an appeals process.
Mr Bulger's solicitor, Mr Robin Makin, said of Thompson and Venables: "They still haven't apologised to Mr Bulger or his family. If they are truly rehabilitated I would have thought that would be relatively easy. It seems they are being reinvented rather than rehabilitated."
Mrs Bulger was in court to hear Lord Woolf acknowledge that "naturally, whenever these two young men come to be released that will be far too early so far as the victim's family are concerned. The parents are entitled to point out that James had no second chance. He was entirely innocent but he will not have the opportunity of growing up and maturing in the way his killers have." He said the over-riding mitigating factor was the age of the two boys when their crime was committed - and he had to consider the progress they had made and their genuine remorse.