New identity for Jon Venables 'at £250,000'

KILLER Jon Venables will be given a new identity at a cost to the taxpayer of £250,000, it was reported today.

He was yesterday jailed for two years after admitting downloading pornographic images of toddlers.

Venables, 27, who along with Robert Thompson murdered two-year-old James Bulger, will be issued with a new birth certificate, national insurance number and other identity documents at a cost of 250,000 when he is released, it was reported today.

But a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said it did not accept it was "inevitable" that he would be given a new identity.

Venables and his friend Thompson were just 10 when they killed James in Bootle, Merseyside, and became national hate figures.

They were jailed for life in 1993 and given new identities when they were released.