Jack Straw to meet James Bulger's mother

JUSTICE Secretary Jack Straw will meet James Bulger's mother Denise Fergus, following the recall to custody of one of the toddler's killers, the Ministry of Justice said last night.

Jon Venables has reportedly made several trips to the city where he murdered the toddler, since being released, despite a ban on him doing so.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "The Justice Secretary has received a request to meet with Mrs Fergus. He plans to make arrangements to do so." Mr Straw is expected to meet Mrs Fergus in the coming days.

Venables 27, has visited nightclubs and a pop concert in Liverpool and even watched Premier League side Everton at Goodison Park, the Daily Mirror said. But he has reportedly not visited Bootle, the city district where he and Robert Thompson snatched James 17 years ago and took him off to his death.

After being released on licence and with a new identity in 2001, Venables was ordered not to return to Merseyside, among a series of other conditions.

The further revelations about his behaviour come after it emerged this week that the killer was recalled to custody for breaching his licence. Ministers are refusing to give details about what he did, despite growing demands for more information.

Venables was taken back to prison last week after reportedly fighting with a work colleague and developing a drug problem. There are fears that the recall could see his new identity being discovered because of fellow prisoners' suspicions about special treatment.

In 1993, he and Robert Thompson, both just ten at the time, led two-year-old James from a Liverpool shopping centre on a two-mile walk to his death. They battered the little boy and left his body on a railway track for a train to cut it in two.

The Prime Minister said that although he understood the public "outrage" surrounding Venables' licence breach, the government would not comment on individual cases.

He said: "What we are talking about is a totally abhorrent crime that happened some years ago but that still, rightly so, disgusts and offends the British people and I can rightly understand the public outrage, even after so many years."

He added: "But the public know that we cannot comment on individual cases that are going through the system and I think the Justice Secretary explained the particular constraints in this case. But I want to be absolutely clear that what matters here is that the justice system is allowed to run its course and that justice is done, whatever wrongs are committed."

Mrs Fergus and her ex-husband only found out about Venables' recall hours before news broke in the media on Tuesday. She has said the public deserve to know what Venables had done, and was said today to find it "insulting" that Gordon Brown was "hiding behind the excuse" that he could not comment on individual cases.

Venables will appear before a Parole Board hearing within 28 days to examine why he was taken back to jail.

A spokesman for the Parole Board said it was likely the result of the hearing would be released because of the high-profile nature of the case. But the reasons for the recall were unlikely to be made public at this stage, he said.

Yesterday in the Commons the Tories demanded more details be disclosed, claiming the information was in the public interest.

And a flurry of charities and opposition politicians also joined demands for greater rights and better treatment for James's family.