Bulger case: internet firm challenges injunction

An Internet service provider will today argue the injunction protecting James Bulger’s killers should be varied so it cannot be held responsible for contemptuous material posted on its web pages.

Demon Internet’s case will be heard by the judge who imposed the injunction designed to keep Robert Thompson and Jon Venables’ new identities and whereabouts secret.

President of the Family Division at the High Court, Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, will hear Demon’s case that currently it could be held responsible for breaching the injunction - thus facing a fine or even jail - through no fault of its own, her clerk Roger Smith said.

There has already been concern about the role of the Internet in the complex circumstances surrounding the release of the 18-year-olds, who abducted, tortured and murdered James in 1993.

Thompson was photographed during a trip to Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield before the Parole Board’s decision to free him, and there were threats to publish it on the Internet.

The Government and the courts have difficulty controlling information on the Web because of its labyrinthine international structure, as shown in March this year when former MI6 agent Richard Tomlinson published his spy book The Big Breach in cyberspace although it was banned in Britain.

Renegade MI5 agent David Shayler also used the tactic to disseminate allegations about the secret service while he was in exile in Paris to avoid prosecution under the Official Secrets Act.

Dame Elizabeth’s clerk, Roger Smith, said: ‘‘The applicants feel the injunction made at the last hearing did not really lend itself to the Internet, which we all know is very difficult.

‘‘The applicants feel that their clients will be in danger of breaching the injunction through no fault of their own.’’

It was not known if the case would be heard in public.