I fear my son Michael could unwittingly talk to Venables or Thompson in a bar... not knowing they killed James

bring the feelings of powerlessness flooding back.

There have been many battles around whether they received a fair hearing, and their sentence – something I vowed never to let go.

I promised James I would keep his killers locked up. So Friday, June 24, 2001, turned out to be one of the worst days of my life.

Little over eight years after murdering James, Thompson and

Venables were released. I hadn’t felt anger like that for a long time. They were free and I was terrified. I became fixated that, despite the hollow assurances from the government, they could be living down the road. Did they know where I lived? Did they know what my kids looked like and where they went to school? Were they visiting James’s grave? Supermarket shopping was a living hell.

If I took the kids, then Stuart had to come with me. Our house was like a fortress, with high fences and locked gates.

But in a positive way, too, James is part of the family – especially when it comes to special occasions.

JUSTICE

There is a Christmas tree planted next to his grave, and each year we go to the cemetery to decorate it.

We put lights and baubles on it, and hang his stocking on there.

We had the marble on his grave redone for his 18th birthday. It’s not exactly the gift you imagine giving your child on a special birthday.

Time, and my husband and children, have given me a sense of peace I could never have imagined after the day that James left my side.

But I have never stopped fighting for justice.

The time has now come, 25 years after my son’s murder and in light of the recent charges against Venables – last year, he was again recalled on alleged child pornography offences – that there is a renewed national conversation around the appropriate sentencing for underage criminals.

I will do all I can for James until I have no breath left.

With her second husband Stuart