Bulger killers freed by parole board

James Bulger's killers have been granted their freedom by the British Parole Board, according to sources close to the case.

British Home Secretary David Blunkett is set to announce that the killers of James Bulger are to be released.

The Parole Board's decision on Jon Venables and Robert Thompson is to be made public in a House of Commons written answer.

They could be freed within days. They have been given secret new identities and will live in separate parts of the country.

Venables and Thompson, both 18, went before the British Parole Board this week to decide if they still represent a danger to the public.

They were just 10 when they 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.