Witness protection

Following the decision to release the killers of James Bulger, Dr Nick Fyfe of the Geography Department has been much in demand by the world's media. It might seem surprising that CNN, BBC TV and Radio and British and European national newspapers should want a geographer to comment on the future faced by Robert Thomson and Jon Venables but it reflects the pioneering research Nick Fyfe has done on the protection and relocation of witnesses.

In 1997 he was commissioned by the Scottish Executive to conduct the first ever evaluation of a witness protection programme, examining how prosecution witnesses whose lives are in danger because of possible revenge attacks are secretly relocated. The research provided insights into how these witnesses and their families cope with the pressures of living in new communities, often under new identities, with virtually no contact with their home area. These are precisely the circumstances that the Bulger killers now find themselves in.

Dr Fyfe said, "It has been claimed by some that the killers of James Bulger have escaped lightly by being released and relocated, yet the pressures they will face for the rest of their lives are enormous. They will live with the constant fear that their location and their real identities will be discovered, something which makes seemingly mundane and routine activities, like answering the phone, opening a letter or even passing strangers in the street, sources of considerable anxiety. In addition the need to conceal their past and maintain a pretence about who they are makes the conduct of normal social relations and the development of any kind of social intimacy enormously difficult."

As to the question of whether the Bulger killers will remain safe for the rest of their lives, Dr Fyfe is uncertain. "The success rates of witness protection programmes, both in the UK and the US, in terms of ensuring the physical safety of witnesses is good. Far more difficult is the issue of the mental and social well-being of individuals and their families who have been relocated. Some do manage but others find the pressures of concealment and pretence too great, leading to problems of mental illness and even suicide. Added to this is the barely concealed determination of some to hunt down Venables and Thomson, making the future faced by James Bulger's killers a very bleak one."

Dr Fyfe's book, Protecting Intimidated Witnesses, was published in May this year and has already been welcomed by critics as "a clear, graphic and informed study that illuminates an area hitherto almost utterly obscure". See books page.

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