Image copyright SWNS Image caption Chloe Cowan cannot make any contact with James Bulger's parents or family

A woman who admitted sending disturbing Twitter messages to the mother of murdered toddler, James Bulger, has been jailed for three years.

Chloe Cowan, 20, from Margate in Kent, pleaded guilty to stalking involving serious alarm or distress at an earlier hearing at Canterbury Crown Court.

She had posed as one of the toddler's killers and as his ghost in the tweets.

Cowan was given a restraining order, prohibiting her from making any contact with James' parents or their family.

Image copyright PA Image caption James Bulger was murdered in 1993 by schoolboys Jon Venables and Robert Thompson

In addition, she was banned for 10 years from using any device with internet capability without it being able to store the history of its use.

Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS South East, Jaswant Narwal, said Cowan had "targeted and tormented" the two-year-old's mother with "cruel tweets".

James was murdered in 1993 by schoolboys Jon Venables and Robert Thompson after they abducted him from a shopping centre in Bootle, on Merseyside.