PEOPLE who posted photos online claiming to expose the identity of James Bulger’s killers Jon Venables or Robert Thompson will be prosecuted.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve said a "small number" of people will face contempt of court proceedings and the relevant court papers will be served shortly.

Photos were posted online earlier this month, around the time of the 20th anniversary of the murder of two-year-old James, who was taken from the Strand shopping centre, in Bootle.

A worldwide injunction bans publication of any images or information claiming to identify anyone as Venables or Thompson.

The order is breached if a picture claiming to show the killers – even if it is not actually them – is published, including on the internet.

Giving details of the new identities of Venables and Thompson or their whereabouts is also prohibited.

A spokesman for the Attorney General said: "There are many different images circulating online claiming to be of Venables or Thompson. Potentially innocent individuals may be wrongly identified as being one of the two men and placed in danger.

"The order and its enforcement is therefore intended to protect not only Venables and Thompson but also members of the public who were incorrectly identified as being one of them."

The Attorney General’s office also warned anyone who has posted material online which is in breach of the terms of the order to remove it immediately.

Thompson and Venables were aged 10 when they abducted and killed two-year-old James Bulger from outside a butcher’s in the Strand shopping precinct in 1993. They walked him to a railway line and killed him.

In 2001, the Parole Board ruled they were no longer a danger to the public after spending eight years in secure accommodation.

But Venables was sent back to prison three years ago after he admitted possessing and distributing indecent images of children.

He was living in Cheshire at the time and had managed to hold down a job and forge friendships with colleagues – but is said to have revealed his true identity when drunk, prompting fears for his safety.

Venables, 30, is due before a parole board later this year, which will determine whether he should be released again. He was denied parole last year and James’s mum, Denise Fergus, said he should never be released.