Two people who shared information online believed to be about one of toddler James Bulger's killers have been spared jail.

Richard McKeag, 28, and Natalie Barker, 36, were both given suspended sentences after they admitted breaching a worldwide injunction meant to stop Jon Venables' identity becoming public.

At the High Court, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, sitting with Mr Justice Warby, handed McKeag a 12-month jail sentence, while Barker got eight months.

The terms were suspended for two years.

Lord Burnett said that, were it not for their personal circumstances, the defendants would have been sent to prison immediately for their "serious" breaches of the injunction after posting pictures and other details.


The court heard McKeag admitted three breaches after posting an article on his website in November 2017.

The article contained photographs, said to be of Venables, and purported to reveal his new identity and place of work.

He was "well aware" of the injunction and wrote about risking legal action, as well as encouraging people to share the article widely in a bid to "defeat the legal system by mass publication", the court heard.

Image: James Bulger was two years old when he was murdered in Bootle, Merseyside

McKeag's lawyers told the court he suffered serious mental and physical health problems and was unwell when he posted the article.

They said he was unable to attend the hearing as he was admitted to hospital on Wednesday, but had written a letter in which he sincerely apologised and said he realised it was for the courts to "serve justice".

Barker, a single mother of three, previously admitted five breaches of the injunction and sat quietly behind her legal team throughout the hearing.

In February and March 2018, she posted a picture which purported to be of Venables on her Twitter account.

Her lawyers said she now understood the seriousness of her actions, had expressed remorse and has closed her Twitter account.

There is a court order banning the publication of anything that reveals the identities of Venables and fellow killer Robert Thompson.

The pair were aged 10 when they kidnapped, tortured and murdered two-year-old James in the town of Bootle, Merseyside in 1993.

Venables and Thompson have been living anonymously with new identities since being released from a life sentence.

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC, who brought contempt proceedings against McKeag and Barker last year, said after the hearing: "The injunction protects the identities of the offenders, but also innocent individuals who may be wrongly identified as being one of the two men and placed in danger as a result."