Tina Malone spared jail: Shameless star 'extremely sorry' after revealing identity of James Bulger's killer Jon Venables

James Bulger was abducted and killed in Merseyside in 1993
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Shameless star Tina Malone has been spared a spell in prison after she tearfully told the High Court she is “extremely sorry” for revealing the identity of James Bulger’s killer.

The 56-year-old actress admitted being in Contempt of Court when she posted the message on Facebook last February, breaking a court injunction protecting killer Jon Venables’ new identity.

Before deleting the post, she told a reporter: “You don’t deserve a second chance – how do we not get rid of these people and wipe them from the Earth? I’m a devout Catholic, but the Bible says ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’.”

Ms Malone broke down in tears as she told the court today: “I didn’t know what I was doing was illegal – had I known I wouldn’t have done it”.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett sentenced the sobbing star to an eight-month prison term suspended for two years, saying she had “candidly accepted in evidence that she appreciated anonymity given to protect Thompson and Venables from the public, to stop them being hounded, attacked, and ‘run out of town’.

James Bulger was abducted and killed in Merseyside
PA Archive/PA Images

He said: “The risks against which the original injunction sought to give protection have, if anything, intensified as a result of today’s social media.”

The judge pointed out that one man wrongly identified as Venables had in the past been subjected to abuse and forced to move house as a consequence.

He added: “It is sometimes not appreciated just how pernicious a breach can be, not only for the direct beneficiary of the order but for anyone who mistakenly gets swept up.”

But he agreed not to send Malone straight to prison after hearing about her “personal circumstances and mitigation”.

The court heard Malone is the primary carer for her young daughter, she was diagnosed as bi-polar at the age of 28, and had suffered a mental breakdown just before the offending post was made.

She said in a statement: “I’m extremely sorry for any distress I have caused – I know now that what I did was wrong”.

She insisted she believed anything already on the Internet could be shared publicly, and said her words to the journalist were “stupid, naïve, and flippant”.

“I am a devout Catholic, I believe in justice but I don’t believe in inciting violence in any way, shape, or form on anyone”, she said.

Ms Malone, an ambassador of The James Bulger Memorial Trust, deleted the Facebook post once she realised it was in breach of an injunction.

She initially fought the Contempt proceedings, but accepted in her evidence that she had known about the injunction and its purpose. She then accepted that she was guilty of contempt.

Venables and co-accused Robert Thompson served eight years behind bars for the murder of two-year-old James Bulger, and a worldwide High Court injunction issued on their release bans any publication of their current identities or whereabouts.

Anyone who breaks the injunction can face up to two years in prison for contempt of court.

The court also ordered Malone to pay £10,000 in court costs.

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