The killers of the Liverpool boy, James Bulger, have the "right to life" when they are released, and this could be threatened if the secrecy surrounding them is lifted, a High Court judge was told yesterday.
Mr Edward Fitzgerald QC said it was the duty of the state to protect Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, and their right to life and freedom from persecution took precedence over the media's right to freedom of expression. The two, who have now both turned 18, hope to win parole early next year, following a ruling by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, that they had served the minimum tariff necessary under their life sentences.
The boys, who were both 10 when they beat two-year-old James to death on a railway line in Liverpool in February 1993, have served their sentences in secure local authority accommodation.
An interim injunction, granted in July, bans the media from taking or publishing photographs of them or reporting on their progress or treatment. Mr Fitzgerald, representing Venables, yesterday opened an action to continue that injunction for the rest of the boys' lives. Both are believed to be terrified at the prospect of being thrown into the media spotlight. The hearing was adjourned until today.