James Bulger killer: Gordon Brown defends refusal to reveal new offence

Prime minister says he understands 'public outrage' after jailing of Jon Venables but justice system must run its course
Gordon Brown outside 10 Downing Street
Gordon Brown leaves 10 Downing Street this morning. The prime minister said the killing of James Bulger was an abhorrent crime that still offended the British people. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

The prime minister, Gordon Brown, today defended the government's refusal to disclose why Jon Venables, who was convicted at the age of 10 of the murder of two-year-old James Bulger, has been sent back to prison for unspecified breaches of the conditions of his release on a life licence.

Brown said he understood "public outrage" but insisted it was impossible for the specific details of the breach to be revealed.

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"What we are talking about is a totally abhorrent crime that happened some years ago but that still, rightly so, disgusts and offends the British people and I can rightly understand the public outrage, even after so many years," he said at a Downing Street press conference.

"But the public know that we cannot comment on individual cases that are going through the system and I think the justice secretary explained the particular constraints in this case.

"But I want to be absolutely clear that what matters here is that the justice system is allowed to run its course and that justice is done, whatever wrongs are committed.

"The justice system must be allowed to take the action that is necessary. That is what people would expect and that is what is going to happen."

The prime minister's intervention came after the justice secretary, Jack Straw, was last night warned by lawyers and probation officers that it is inevitable that Venables's new identity will become known while he is back behind bars.

Straw yesterday strongly defended his decision not to reveal why Venables, now 27, has been recalled to prison more than eight years after he and his co-defendant, Robert Thompson, were released on life licences from local authority secure units.

"I know there's an intense public interest in why he has been recalled," said Straw. "I would like to give that information but I'm sorry that for good reasons I can't, and that's in the public interest."

Only 89 offenders released on a life licence were returned to jail last year after breaching the terms of their licence. Only a handful of justice ministry officials, senior probation officers and prison governors currently know Venables's new identity. But as his trial solicitor, Laurence Lee, pointed out: "Every prison in the country will be looking round to see whether or not there's a 27-year-old who looks a little bit like that boy."

Lee said it was too early to condemn Venables until it was known what he had done to justify the recall to jail. He said a breach of his ban on going to Merseyside or something similar might be regarded as minor technical infringements that would not mean spending long in prison.

Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation union, also said he believed Venables's new identity would be quickly compromised inside prison.

Justice ministry officials said yesterday that disclosing the details of the breaches involved could prejudice the forthcoming parole board hearing to decide whether the recall is justified. It is also thought that disclosing the nature of the breach could jeopardise the anonymity order in force since Venables and Thompson were released in 2001. Bulger's family have not been told the details.

Two-year-old James Bulger was abducted from a Bootle shopping centre and murdered by Thompson and Venables in 1993. His body was found was found by children playing on a railway line. The grainy CCTV footage of his abduction has lost none of its emotional power to shock.

The killers were released in 2001 on life licences which included conditions such as not contacting each other or going near Merseyside. Both were given new names and a worldwide anonymity order was granted to protect their identity.

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