Parole hearing for Bulger killers
Proceedings which could decide the release of the killers of toddler James Bulger are set to get under way in private.
Lawyers for Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 18, are presenting their arguments before a parole board hearing, which is being held at a secret location.
The three-strong parole board panel will listen to legal arguments, examine reports and dossiers, and discuss which witnesses are required for the full hearing.
It precedes the parole hearing proper, to take place at a date to be fixed, which will decide whether Thompson and Venables can be released.
The full hearing will be attended by the killers, representatives of Home Secretary Jack Straw, and witnesses.
Thompson and Venables were 10 when they abducted two-year-old James from the Strand shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993. The pair dragged the toddler to a nearby railway line where they tortured him and left him for dead.
After their conviction at Preston Crown Court later that year, the trial judge, Mr Justice Morland, recommended an eight-year minimum sentence for what he called "an act of unparalleled barbarity".
The then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Taylor, increased the term to 10 years. But the European Court of Human Rights ruled that former Tory Home Secretary Michael Howard had acted illegally when he further increased the tariff to 15 years.
James's mother, Denise Fergus, who lives in Kirkby, Merseyside, has said she wants the pair to be sent abroad and never come back.
