According to family representatives, new forensic evidence has emerged that could prompt police to re-examine critical elements of the 1993 investigation, including the infamous traces of blue paint found on James’s body and the clothing of his killers, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. Sources close to the Bulger family describe the evidence as “potentially decisive” — a scientific inconsistency that may raise fresh questions about how the boy was attacked, and by whom.
For years, the blue Humbrol paint had been a symbol of cruelty — splashed into James’s eye by his young killers, later matched forensically to a tin they had stolen from a shop in Bootle’s Strand Shopping Centre. It was one of many gruesome details that helped convict Thompson and Venables in 1993. But now, a retired forensic examiner claims key laboratory records from that analysis were either incomplete or mishandled, casting doubt on whether all the paint fragments matched the same origin.
James’s mother, Denise Fergus, broke her silence in an emotional statement this week:“We’ve been living this nightmare for 32 years. If something was missed, if something was covered up — we have a right to know. James deserves that truth. They will pay once again if justice demands it.”
The family’s remarks have triggered an outpouring of public outrage. Thousands of social media posts under the hashtag #JusticeForJames have called on Merseyside Police and the Crown Prosecution Service to reopen the case. Outside the Liverpool courthouse, mourners left flowers and messages near a small plaque reading James’s Special Place, the same words carved on his headstone.
Legal experts are divided on whether the case could be formally reopened. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) can recommend reinvestigation only if new evidence has the potential to alter the original verdict. “If the claims about the blue paint analysis are verified,” one legal analyst noted, “this could qualify as grounds for forensic reassessment — not to overturn the convictions, but to examine whether all aspects of the case were properly handled.”
Meanwhile, across Liverpool, memories of that February day in 1993 remain painfully vivid. From the Strand Shopping Centre — where James was last seen holding a stranger’s hand — to the quiet railway embankment in Walton where his tiny body was found, the city still bears the weight of its grief.
In pubs and cafés, people shake their heads, weary of revisiting the trauma but united in one sentiment: Liverpool never forgot James.
As night falls over Kirkdale Cemetery, where toys still hang from the tree by his grave, Denise and her family say they are not seeking vengeance — only truth.“We can’t forgive until we understand,” she said softly. “And if there’s something new — even after 32 years — we will fight for James again.”
