Bulger killer 'suspected of child porn offences'

The claims about the 27-year-old convicted murderer, made in the Sunday Mirror, came after Justice Secretary Jack Straw refused to disclose the reasons for last week’s recall, saying only they related to “extremely serious allegations”.

Senior politicians yesterday lined up to support the Government’s stance.

The decision was backed by David Blunkett, who as then Home Secretary informed MPs of the Parole Board’s decision that Venables should be released in 2001.

Writing in the News of the World, he said: “The separation between judges and politicians is critical. The idea that we should abandon it in this case is understandable coming from James’s immediate family.

“Even with a General Election pending, the Government cannot and must not bend on this – not least because if Venables has committed a further crime, then that victim and their family deserve their day in court.”

Leader of the Commons Harriet Harman declined to comment on the reason why Venables was returned to custody.

She told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show: “If there is a question of an offence having been committed then it needs to be properly investigated and anybody who has committed an offence needs to be brought to trial.

“We don’t want anything to happen whereby they can’t be brought to a trial because it is said that they can’t get a fair trial because all the media reporting has been prejudiced.”

James Bulger’s mother Denise Fergus said on Saturday Venables should lose his anonymity if charged with a new offence.

Her spokesman Chris Johnson said: “If after that, depending on the outcome of the court case, the powers that be decide that he should have some new identity yet again, then we’ll deal with that when we come to it.

“But she can’t understand why he doesn’t appear in a dock under his own name, if that’s going to be where he ends up.”

Mrs Fergus has demanded to know why Venables was put back in jail, and is meeting Mr Straw to discuss the matter.

Venables and Robert Thompson were just 10 when they battered two-year-old James to death in Liverpool 17 years ago.

They were both released on lifelong licence in 2001 with new identities, requiring them to obey strict conditions such as not contacting each other or returning to the city where James was killed.