SEVEN years ago the trial of John Venables and Robert Thompson was front page news for weeks, and the interest and outrage caused by the content of that trial has lasted until the present time.

In 1993 these two 10 year olds were found guilty of the torture and murder of three year old James Bulger, and sentenced, initially to eight years imprisonment, then to 10 years and ultimately to 15 years.

More recently though, the European Court of Human Rights has found that, firstly, the Home Secretary should not have set the term of imprisonment and, secondly, the two children had not received a fair trial.

This trial has raised all kinds of issues, not only for those intimately involved with the situation in Liverpool, but also for society generally, and the manner in which it deals with youngsters who have committed serious crime.

Also, the way that bereaved families come to terms with the deaths of their nearest and dearest should be a matter of concern for the wider community.

That the perpetrators of this horrible crime were 10 years old at the time was and is sometimes ignored in the hyperbole that often accompanies comment on the issues: they were children.

Times are long past when the justice system of this country hanged children for stealing a loaf of bread, but the feelings of outrage that this incident raised overshadows much reasoned debate about the futures of these two boys.

This week, that debate has started all over again and many of the questions asked at the time seem not to have been answered; the serious issues not addressed.

Questions like: what will finally happen to these youngsters when they are eventually released from incarceration? Will the general public know about their release and whereabouts? Will they ever be able to take their place in the community?

The family of James Bulger was torn apart by his murder. The grief and anger of James' mother, Denise Fergus, was, and remains, a potent symbol of society's disgust at the crime.

I have, thank God, never been in that woman's situation, and I pray to God that I never will be. I cannot put myself in her position, I cannot feel the anguish and torment that she must have felt. I do know, though, that time passes, with the process of mourning having its place in that passage of time. But when is mourning replaced by obsession?

It has to be when, after seven years, the grief and anger remains as compelling as it was on the day of the murder.

Society must have no part of this obsessive anger, it must move forward. James is dead and nothing can change that. After seven years, though, Robert Thompson and John Venables are hopefully wiser and repentant.

We must not forget the enormity of their crime, but unless we are vindictive, we must forgive these two boys. Not in a personal way, but in the spirit of a civilised nation.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.