Probe over Twitter photo 'revealing identity of Jamie Bulger killer Jon Venables'

A photograph published on Twitter which may have exposed the new identity of an infamous child killer is being investigated by Britain's Attorney General.

The picture purporting to show Jon Venables was retweeted more than 100 times. The Attorney General office is said to be investigating a possible contempt of court, London's Telegraph reported.

The police, prison authorities and the Ministry of Justice are also said to be involved in the probe, although none have confirmed that the man in the photograph is Venables.

Venables was 10 years old when he and his friend Robert Thompson, also 10, led two-year-old Jamie Bulger from a shopping centre in northern England and tortured him before leaving his body on a train track. The pair were jailed for life in 1993 but were released on licence when they turned 18. They were given new identities and granted an injunction giving them life-long anonymity to protect them from revenge attacks.

The publication of the photograph comes almost 20 years to the day since the toddler was brutally murdered.

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office told The Telegraph: “The Attorney General’s Office has been alerted to a possible contempt of court. We are liaising with the Ministry of Justice and others to establish the facts.