The father of the murdered child, James Bulger, yesterday lost his case to stop the release of his son's killers.
Mr Ralph Bulger emerged "devastated" from the High Court after three senior judges ruled he did not have the legal standing to challenge the reduced tariff, seven years and eight months, served by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.
Lord Justice Rose, Mr Justice Sullivan and Mr Justice PerryDavey rejected arguments by Mr Bulger's lawyers that the tariff ignored the enormity of the crime committed and was likely to undermine confidence in the criminal justice system.
Spelling the effective end of his campaign to halt the release of Thompson and Venables, the court refused Mr Bulger leave to appeal the decision. However, the solicitor acting for James's mother, Ms Denise Fergus, said she would continue the fight to keep the two child killers within the prison system.
Mr Sean Sexton said he had written to the chief executive of the parole board asking him to mount an independent investigation into recent allegations of violent behaviour by Thompson.
"Denise will fight on by whatever means she can to prevent another family suffering at the hands of these dangerous young men, who she believes have been reinvented rather than rehabilitated," he said, insisting he would seek a judicial review if such independent investigation was denied.
However, Lord Justice Rose yesterday said the court was referring papers in the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions after lawyers for Thompson and the Home Office asserted that a report in the Sun- day People newspaper saying Thompson had been involved in a violent incident with another secure unit detainee was "a total fabrication" based on "forged" papers.
The judge said there was nothing in the allegation, or in a second allegation against Thompson, to undermine Lord Wolff's original decision to cut the tariffs.
Speaking outside the court, Mr Bulger's brother, Jimmy, who identified the mutilated body of his nephew, said: "It is clear that an inadequate tariff has been fixed.
"The Home Secretary, the Lord Chief Justice, the prosecuting authorities and this court have not allowed the real issues of what criminal justice and the rights of victims are all about to be properly considered."
Ms Dee Warner, spokeswoman for the pressure group Mothers Against Murder and Aggression, said: "The law in this country has been taken away from the people."