Tina Malone has been given an eight-month suspended sentence after she admitted breaching an injunction protecting the identity of James Bulger’s killer, Jon Venables.

The high court heard the actor shared a post on Facebook in February 2018 that purportedly included an image of Venables and his new name.

Passing sentence, Lord Burnett, sitting with Mr Justice Warby, said: “Although the custody threshold is undoubtedly passed in this case, the personal circumstances and mitigation of this defendant are such that we should impose a suspended committal order.

“Taking account of everything that we have heard, we order that the defendant be committed to prison for eight months, but we suspend that order for two years.”

He said that if Malone committed another contempt of court offence within two years, she would be jailed for eight months plus any additional sentence she may be given.

The judge ordered Malone to pay £10,000 towards the costs of the case.

After the ruling, Malone’s solicitor, Mark Manley, said: “She’s naturally very happy that this matter is now concluded and that she is able to go home to her family this evening. She’s obviously very sorry to have found herself in this position.”

Malone’s barrister, Adam Speker, had told the court she accepted she was in breach of an injunction concealing the new identify of Venables for his own protection.

The actor, who has appeared in Channel 4’s Shameless, told the court she was not aware she was doing anything wrong when she shared the post.

A court order was made “against the world” in 2001 banning the publication of anything that purports to reveal the identities of Venables and Robert Thompson.

They have been living anonymously with new identities since being released from a life sentence for the kidnap, torture and murder of James in 1993, when they were both aged 10.

Robert Buckland QC, the solicitor general, said: “The injunction in this case is intended to both protect the identities of the offenders, but also innocent individuals who may be incorrectly identified as them. Posting this material online is a very serious matter and can result in a prison sentence.

“I would urge everyone to think carefully about whether their social media posts could breach the order or amount to any other type of contempt of court.”