Shameless star’s £10k bill for Facebook post
SPARED JAIL FOR BREACHING INJUNCTION OVER JAMIE BULGER KILLER
SHAMELESS actress Tina Malone has escaped an immediate jail sentence for breaching an injunction protecting the new identity of James Bulger’s killer Jon Venables.
Malone, who starred as Mimi Maguire in the award-winning Channel 4 comedy drama filmed in Wythenshawe, shared a post on social media.
Alongside an eight-month prison sentence, which was suspended at the High Court for two years, she was also ordered to pay £10,000 in court costs.
Judges heard that she shared a post on Facebook in February last year which purportedly included an image and the new name of Venables.
Malone’s barrister, Adam Speker, told the High Court on Wednesday that on reflection after giving evidence, the 56-year-old accepted that she was in breach of the injunction. He said she understood that Venables had been given anonymity for his protection.
Malone, from Manchester, pleaded guilty to contempt of court and said she was not aware that she was doing anything wrong when she shared the post.
The court heard she was suffering mental health problems when she shared the post and that she is the main carer for her five-year-old daughter and elderly mother. A court order was made ‘against the world’ in 2001 which bans the publication of anything that purports to reveal the identities of Venables and Robert Thompson.
They have been living anonymously with new identities since being released from a life sentence for the kidnap, torture and murder of James in 1993, when they were both aged 10.
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett, sitting with Mr Justice Warby, said: “We have concluded that, although the custody threshold is undoubtedly passed in this case, the personal circumstances and mitigation of this defendant are such that we should impose a suspended committal order.
“Taking account of everything that we have heard, we order that the defendant be committed to prison for eight months, but we suspend that order for two years.”
The judge said that if Malone committed another contempt of court within two years, she would be jailed for eight months plus any additional sentence she may be given for the further offence.