JAMES BULGER’S killer, Jon Venables, could be given a second new name after pictures and details of his current identity were apparently leaked through the internet.

The pictures were reportedly taken before Venables’s re-arrest and subsequent jailing on child porn charges last March.

The Ministry of Justice last night refused to rule out the possibility of another identity for Venables, now 28.

A spokesman said: “Such a change of identity is extremely rare and granted only when the police assess that there is clear and credible evidence of a sustained threat to the offender’s life on release into the community.”

The website purporting to show pictures of Venables as an adult appeared to have been shut down last night, although it was unclear whether the authorities had acted against it.

The Ministry of Justice said they could “neither confirm or deny” whether the pictures actually showed Venables. However, they reiterated the worldwide ban on the disclosure of any details that could lead to his new life being compromised.

In 2001, a judge granted Venables anonymity for life in an effort to help him re-integrate back into society, after spending much of his childhood locked up for the appalling crimes of 1993.