James Bulger crusaders spared jail
TWO web “vigilantes” who tried to reveal the secret identities of the murderers of toddler James Bulger on Facebook and Twitter were spared jail yesterday.
But others who try to do the same in the future can expect to end up behind bars, said a judge.
Dean Liddle and Neil Harkins posted photographs they believed were of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson.
More than 24,000 people saw the images.
Venables and Thompson, who were 10 when they murdered James in Liverpool in 1993, were given protected new identities after they left prison.
Liddle, 28, a graphic designer from Sunderland, and Harkins, 35, a house husband from Bridlington, North Yorks, were given nine-month terms, suspended for 15 months, for contempt of court.
But Judge Sir John Thomas warned in the High Court that others would find there was “little prospect” of them avoiding jail if they did the same.
He said: “Vigilantism has no place in a civilised country.”