James Bulger's killers have been granted their freedom by the Parole Board.
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James Bulger
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The decision to release the two after eight years in secure units has been confirmed by the British Home Secretary Mr David Blunkett in a written House of Commons reply.
The Parole Board decided they should be released on life licences.
The board held hearings earlier this week for Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who were both 10 years old when they murdered James in Liverpool in February 1993. The two, who are both now 18, have been given secret new identities.
The decision has provoked anger among campaigners opposed to their release.
It also comes as a fresh blow to the Bulger family who are strongly opposed to them being given their freedom. James's mother Mrs Denise Fergus has condemned the decision.
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Her spokesman Mr Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust, confirmed she had been informed of the Parole Board's move and said she is devastated.
Mr Blunkett told MPs that Venables and Thompson will be "subject to strict licence conditions and liable to immediate recall if there is any concern at any time about their risk".
He said: "The Parole Board has informed me today of their decision, subject to conditions, to direct the release on life licence of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables who were convicted in November 1993 of the murder of James Bulger."
The two killers abducted two-year-old James from the Strand shopping precinct in Bootle, Merseyside, before torturing him and battering him to death on a railway line.
PA