Legal action over Bulger article

An open-ended injunction protects Venables' and Thompson's identities

The attorney general has announced he will apply to bring contempt proceedings against a newspaper which allegedly risked revealing the whereabouts of James Bulger's killers.

A spokesman said Lord Goldsmith QC intends to make an application to commit Greater Manchester Newspapers Limited for breach of an injunction protecting the anonymity of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson.

An article published by the Manchester Evening News the day the pair were granted release appears to breach the high court injunction, as it contains information which might have led to the identification of their whereabouts, the spokesman said.

The Parole Board decided last month to allow the pair to be freed on life licences after spending eight years in secure accommodation for the murder of the two-year-old.

They are now both 18 and have been given new identities, protected by a lifelong injunction made at the High Court in January.

Paper 'disappointed'

The attorney general does not consider it necessary to seek to join the editor, Paul Horrocks, or the news editor as respondents to the application, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

The Manchester Evening News has expressed its disappointment at the attorney general's decision.

Solicitors for Greater Manchester Newspapers Limited, the publishers of the Manchester Evening News, said: "The Manchester Evening News regrets that, despite its having explained to the Attorney General the circumstances in which the article complained of came to be published, he has nevertheless thought it necessary to bring the Manchester Evening News before the court."

Reminder to editors

On 25 June, a letter was sent to Mr Horrocks giving the newspaper the opportunity to make any representations the paper would wish the attorney general to take into account when considering whether it would be appropriate to issue proceedings for contempt.

A reply was requested by 2 July, and solicitors for Greater Manchester Newspapers Limited replied on that day, the spokesman said.

Lord Goldsmith reminded all editors on Wednesday that the injunction prohibits the publication of any information likely to lead to the identification of Venables or Thompson, or any information likely to lead to the identification of their past, present or future whereabouts.

He will regard any breach of this injunction as a very serious matter, the spokesman said.

It will be for the court to decide when to list the matter for hearing, he added.

The teenagers abducted two-year-old James from the Strand shopping precinct in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993 before torturing him and battering him to death on a railway line.