HOME Secretary Jack Straw is right to take time to consider the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that the two boys who murdered toddler James Bulger nearly seven years ago did not get a fair trial - and so could be free in as few as three years.

For while their guilt is not denied by this ruling, Mr Straw's concern should be that natural justice is not either.

And whatever the view of the European Court may be about the boys, each aged ten at the time of this shocking murder, being intimidated by appearing in an adult courtroom and by the ritual and formality of their trial - when none of their lawyers protested at this - the Home Secretary must take a view of justice that is so one-sided.

For it would seem to most people, even now still appalled by what the trial judge rightly called "an act of unparalleled evil," that what the European judges have done is considered this case from the viewpoint of the offenders and not that of their tiny, vulnerable victim or of his family.

And whatever rights they assume that little James' killers have, Mr Straw should ensure that they do not supersede those of the victim, his parents and society to expect the guilty to be properly punished.

If he cannot ignore this ruling, his reaction must be to make certain that justice is still seen to be done - and these young murderers going free in just a few years would be the very opposite of that in the eyes of the British people.

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