News of the World publisher News International is reportedly facing legal action from Robert Thompson, one of the killers of James Bulger, over allegations of phone-hacking.
The Sunday Mirror reported that Thompson is suing NI for ‘tens of thousands’after police confirmed his phone was hacked.
Thompson, 29, and his friend Jon Venables murdered two-year-old James Bulger after abducting him from a shopping centre in 1993. Thompson and Venables were both 10 at the time of the killing.
James Bulger’s mother Denise Fergus told the Sunday Mirror any payout would be tantamount to ‘blood money for a killer’and she has called on Home Secretary Theresa May to intervene by forcing Thompson to donate any payment to charity.
She was quoted saying: ‘It would be a terrible insult to James’s memory if the animal who murdered him was to receive a payment.
‘If his phone was hacked, that is wrong. But the only reason that they were interested in him was the fact that he murdered my son.
‘If there is to be compensation paid, then all the money should go to charity.
‘What goes on in the minds of these people that they do not see they are trying to get blood money for a killer?
‘He cannot be allowed to benefit from the wicked crime that he committed.
‘I’ve had to swallow a lot since James was murdered. All down the line the Government, the courts, the lawyers and the probation service have all been on the side of his killers.
‘But this is the final straw and I am not going to sit back and watch this happen. I will move heaven and earth to stop it.’
The Mirror said Thompson was told in August that officers had found evidence his phone was hacked on ‘several occasions”, after his name and number were found in notebooks seized from convicted private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.
The paper noted that the NoW ‘ran a series of exclusive stories about Thompson following his 2001 release, including that he had been rushed to hospital after taking an overdose and that he had moved into a new apartment in Merseyside in 2004″.
A News International source told the Mirror that they had not yet been informed of any legal action by one of the Bulger killers.
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