Bulger killer may avoid prosecution

Justice Secretary Jack Straw is being pushed by senior advisors to take the "easier option" of leaving the case in the hands of parole chiefs to stop "lurid details coming out in full Technicolor" should he appear in court, the News of the World reported.

Ministry of Justice sources said that "no decision had been made" over prosecution for breaking his parole conditions.

Meanwhile, the judge who granted lifelong anonymity to James Bulger's killer Jon Venables has said that raising the age of criminal responsibility would be "unworkable". Baroness Butler-Sloss, the retired president of the High Court's family division, said the public would never accept 10-year-old murderers escaping punishment.

She was speaking after Children's Commissioner Maggie Atkinson's call to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 was condemned by James's mother Denise Fergus as "twisted and insensitive".

Speaking to The Times, Lady Butler-Sloss, who granted Venables and Robert Thompson new identities after their release from prison, said: "I would like to see a much more effective approach towards dealing with the 10 and 11-year-old serious offenders without putting them necessarily into secure accommodation."

She added: "I do not believe the public will, at the moment, stand for murderers of 10-years-old being treated as if they are children and not having to face punishment. The way I would like to go forward is to keep it as it is for the moment, because of public opinion, but to make it much more difficult to send such children to prison."

The Government has already ruled out Dr Atkinson's proposal to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 years, saying children aged 10 and over do know the difference between "bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing".

Dr Atkinson described the killing as "exceptionally unpleasant" but said it was wrong that Thompson and Venables, who were 10 in 1993 when they were charged with the boy's murder, were tried in an adult court.

Responding to the comments, Mrs Fergus called for the commissioner to be sacked, saying: "This woman owes James and me an apology for her twisted and insensitive comments. Then she should resign or be sacked. To say that his killers should not have been tried in an adult court is stupid. They committed an adult crime - a cold-blooded murder that was planned and premeditated and they were tried accordingly."