JAMES BULGER’S mother last night said the court order ensuring his killer’s anonymity should be open to challenge.

Denise Fergus expressed the view after the judge who made the order nine years ago warned Jon Venables could be murdered by vengeful vigilantes if his new identity is revealed.

Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss was supporting Justice Minister Jack Straw’s announcement on the need for secrecy amid growing public pressure and a direct appeal from Mrs Fergus for more details about why the 27-year-old was sent back to jail.

But her spokesman said: "It is wrong for Dame Butler-Sloss to imply that Jon Venables’s identity must always be kept secret, no matter what he does.

"She made her decision nine years ago, based on reports that were made at that time on a person who had been held in a secure children's home for eight years.

"It could be that a new judgment will need to be made based on new evidence and expert reports about the adult Jon Venables.

"Through all this, Denise believes that Venables should be treated like anyone else before the law.

"Any reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing must be fully investigated, and, if there is sufficient evidence, he should be charged.

"If he is to be charged, Jack Straw should go back to the High Court and get the Butler-Sloss order lifted so that Venables can be tried under his own name.

"The public have a right to see that justice is done, and if Venables is sent to prison, as an adult, he should serve his sentence under his own name.

"Only at the end of any such sentence should consideration then be given to renewing his anonymity, depending on the circumstances prevailing at that time. Justice will be served only if Jon Venables knows that he may face the consequences of his actions in a court of law."