Straw meets Bulger’s mother to discuss killer

BRITISH Justice Secretary Jack Straw met James Bulger’s mother yesterday to discuss the return to prison of her son’s killer Jon Venables.

Mr Straw, who has repeatedly refused to confirm the details of why Venables was returned to custody, met Denise Fergus in his Blackburn constituency.

Mrs Fergus asked for a meeting last week after it was revealed Venables had been returned to prison.

Reports have claimed he is being investigated over allegations of child pornography.

The meeting with Mr Straw, at Blackburn Town Hall, lasted about an hour.

A spokesman for Mr Straw said the Justice Secretary tried to answer Mrs Fergus’s questions “as fully as he could”.

Mr Straw has said he cannot reveal the exact reasons for the decision to return Venables to prison, saying only there were “very serious allegations” against him.

In a statement to MPs on Monday, he said it would not be “in the interests of justice” to make more information public.

Mr Straw has also defended the anonymity given to Venables, Robert Thompson and other infamous killers, saying they faced the threat of the “lynch mob” and needed protection.

Both Venables and Thompson were released from custody in 2001 with new identities. They were 10 when they killed the two-year-old boy and left his body on a railway line.

Mrs Fergus’s spokesman, said the meeting was “cordial” but the parties had agreed not to divulge details of the discussion.