Who was James Bulger and what happened to his killers?

On what would have been James Bulger's 35th birthday we look at what has happened since the murder of the toddler and to his 10-year-old killers, in a case that shocked the nation.

Warning: This story contains distressing content

James Bulger was two-years-old when he was abducted from a Merseyside shopping centre on 12 February 1993.

Two boys, both aged 10, led the toddler out of the Strand shopping centre in Bootle while his mother, Denise Fergus, was paying for shopping at a butchers.

Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were truanting from school that day and had spent most of it hanging round the centre.

An image of the boys caught on CCTV was released and became infamous with the case which shocked the nation.

CCTV also showed a frantic Denise desperately looking for her child.

Thompson and Venables had led James two and a half miles to a railway track where they beat him to death.

Along the way the boys had kicked and punched James and had been spotted and challenged by a number of people who were later called to give evidence at their trial.

James had been seen distressed with a head injury - the result of being dropped on his head.

They were seen by 38 people, some of whom challenged them, with Thompson and Venables claiming they were looking after their younger brother or that James was lost and they were taking him to a local police station.

James' body was found two days later on a railway line.

He had been stripped from the waist down, paint had been thrown in his eyes and he had been beaten to death with bricks and a metal bar.

After their arrest and throughout the trial Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were known only as Child A and Child B.

On 24 November 1993, after a three week trial at Preston Crown Court, the pair were found guilty of James' death.

Trial judge Mr Justice Morland sentenced each of them to be detained during Her Majesty's pleasure, such a sentence being mandatory in the case of young offenders convicted of murder.

The names of both boys were released after trial by the judge. In June 2001, Thompson and Venables were released on life licence and handed new identities protected by a court injunction ordering lifetime anonymity.

In February 2010 Venables was recalled to prison after indecent images of children were found on his computer and he breached his parole conditions by visiting Merseyside.

In August 2013 he was released again with a second new identity.

In November 2017 he was recalled again and in February 2018 he was jailed for three years and four months for possessing child abuse images.

In 2019 James Bulger's father, Ralph Bulger, lost a legal challenge for Venables' new identity to be made public.

Venables had an application to be freed rejected in 2020 following an assessment of his case and in December 2023 a parole officers ruled not to release him because he continued to pose a danger to children and could go on to offend again.

Robert Thompson, unlike Jon Venables is not known to have reoffended since his release.

In March 2024 the government was urged by MPs to hold a public inquiry into the murder.

A debate was triggered six years after 213,000 people signed a petition calling for answers as to why Venables was freed and went on to commit more offences.

The petition called for questions to be asked about Venables' time in the prison system, and why experts believed he had been rehabilitated when he was released.

The government has said a full inquiry was "not necessary".

Venables will be eligible for another parole review soon and James' mother Denise Fergus never wants him to be released.

She is planning to meet the Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood next month to directly appeal for a change in the law to keep such reoffenders behind bars.

A Department for Justice representative said it is strengthening parole laws later this year to allow a minister to refer decisions up to the High Court, not just back to a parole board.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.