Attorney general takes action over 'Bulger killer images' Published duration 25 February 2013

image caption Jon Venables (pictured in 1993) was jailed again for two years in July 2010

The attorney general is taking legal action against several people who published photographs said to show one of James Bulger's killers.

There is a ban on publishing anything revealing the identity of Jon Venables or Robert Thompson.

Images said to show one of them as they are now appeared online earlier in February, and have since been removed.

Contempt proceedings against those identified as having posted the photographs are now under way.

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) said proceedings had been instituted against a number of individuals and court papers would be served shortly.

'Placed in danger'

Breaches of the injunction order banning identification of either man could lead to a fine or imprisonment, the AGO said.

A spokesman added: "The terms of the order mean that if a picture claims to be of Venables or Thompson, even if it is not actually them, there will be a breach of the order.

"There are many different images circulating online claiming to be of Venables or Thompson; potentially innocent individuals may be wrongly identified as being one of the two men and placed in danger.

"The order, and its enforcement, is therefore intended to protect not only Venables and Thompson but also those members of the public who have been incorrectly identified as being one of the two men."

Venables and Thompson were 10 years old when they abducted two-year-old James in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993 before torturing and murdering him.

They were convicted later in the year and both released in 2001, receiving a new secret identity and address.