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Shameless actress Tina Malone could face jail after tweeting alleged picture of James Bulger killer Jon Venables

Published 18:02 11 Mar 2018 GMT

Updated 19:06 11 Mar 2018 GMT

Kyle Picknell
Shameless actress Tina Malone could face jail after tweeting alleged picture of James Bulger killer Jon Venables

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She claims she didn't realise she was doing anything illegal.

Shameless actress Tina Malone could be handed a prison sentence after sharing an alleged image of Jon Venables, who murdered James Bulger in 1993 with his schoolfriend Robert Thompson. The killers were ten years old at the time and became the youngest convicted murderers in modern British history. Venables and Thompson are protected by a lifelong anonymity order which prohibits anyone from publishing photographs they believe are of the pair. Breaching the order can result in a two-year prison sentence, which Malone could now be forced to serve after retweeting a post believed to reveal the new identity of Venables to her 22,000 Twitter followers.

The actress told the Daily Star on Sunday: "I didn't have a clue it was illegal.

"What are you going to do... prosecute me for posting a picture?

"I didn't realise. I am not au fait with the law."

Venables was released on licence in 2001 and given a new identity. He was convicted again in 2010 for possessing thousands of child abuse images and is now back in jail after he was given a 40 month sentence in February for the same offence.

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Shameless actress Tina Malone could face jail after tweeting alleged picture of James Bulger killer Jon Venables