Bulger father seeks ruling to keep killers behind bars

James Bulger's father hopes to overturn a decision by the High Court to which could see the toddler's killers freed.

They hope to win parole after the Lord Chief Justice effectively ended the tariff which sets the minimum sentence they must serve.

Ralph Bulger is challenging Lord Woolf's recommendation that the tariff be cut to just eight years, making them eligible for early release.

That recommendation was later rubber-stamped by the Home Secretary, although it will be for the Parole Board to decide whether the teenagers still present a risk and whether they are suitable for release.

Lawyers for Mr Bulger, 34, are arguing that the senior judge put rehabilitation before punishment and deterrence in a way which was so flawed that his recommendation cannot be allowed to stand.

Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who were 10 years old when they abducted and tortured two-year-old James on a railway line in Liverpool in 1993, have so far served their sentences in secure local authority accommodation.

If they are released, they will never have to see the inside of a young offenders' institution or adult prison, but will begin new lives under a cloak of anonymity.

James's mother, Denise Fergus, 33, said she was "disgusted and shocked" by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf's decision, which meant Thompson and Venables had "got away with murder".

Earlier this week she led a march through her home town of Kirkby on Merseyside in support of her Justice for James campaign and urged the Government to look at the worldwide support she has received from people who believe his killers should not be freed in the immediate future.

The march marked the eighth anniversary of the youngster's murder, which shocked the nation.