Bulger killers not ‘intrinsically evil’, claims Balls

JAMES BULGER’S killers were not “intrinsically evil”, Ed Balls said yesterday, as he waded into the row over trying youngsters in adult courts.

The British Schools Secretary said the Children’s Commissioner’s comments about the two-year-old’s murder were “ill-advised”.

Dr Maggie Atkinson described the killing at the weekend as “exceptionally unpleasant” but said it was wrong Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who were 10 in 1993 when they were charged with the boy’s murder, were tried in an adult court.