DURING the James Bulger murder trial, I couldn't bear to read the full details of the court case because my son was the same age and it was too upsetting.

Reading last week's reports about the release of his killers, I discovered, for the first time, exactly what had happened to two-year-old James - how he was left to sit on the edge of a canal wall in the hope he would fall in, had blue enamel paint poured into his eyes, was beaten with bricks and left to be sliced by a train on a railway track. With my youngest child now aged two, I read the sickening accounts this time, still with great difficulty. I cannot begin to imagine James's mother's suffering. While the threat of lynch mob rule surrounding his child killers may be abhorrent, those high-minded, sanctimonious commentators pleading in the Press this week for James's mother to bury her much-publicised hatred, anger and desire for vengeance - even if it is for her own sake - are just as repulsive We, as a society, may be ready to forgive and help rehabilitate James's murderers. But no one has the right to tell the mother of a brutally-murdered two-year-old how she should feel.

CHRIS Evans phoned in sick several days in succession after failing to turn up to present his breakfast show on Virgin Radio, but was pictured enjoying a series of drinking binges with friends. Evans says alcohol isn't a problem and he can "take it or leave it". Let's hope when he does try to "leave it" he can, otherwise he may discover his "illness", far from being an excuse for a few days off, is very real.

WHO can blame the English holidaymakers who arrived in Italy, instead of Spain, and didn't realise they were in the wrong country for several hours? Too many resorts have lost their national identity. Everyone speaks English, the bars are Irish and, whether you're in Spain, Portugal or Greece, all the cafes sell pizza and chips.

THE police chief whose force shot dead an innocent unarmed man is retiring on a £1m pension, days after announcing he shouldn't have to quit just because one of his officers did his job. Chief Constable Paul Whitehouse, who promoted the officers involved, boasted: "My problem is I am too intelligent." Now he hints he may take legal action. "I am fed up with people making allegations without any evidence," he has said. He should look on the bright side. He may have been criticised, but at least he hasn't been shot dead, unlike his officers' innocent victim.

FORMER Wimbledon champion Boris Becker has blamed his wife's love of partying for their marriage failure. Funnily enough, he says his numerous affairs, not to mention getting another woman pregnant, had nothing to do with the break-up. "I love her, I would never do anything to purposefully hurt my family," he says. It sounds as if Boris believes the only mistake he ever made was to get caught.

EASTENDERS' Melanie Healey is to be kidnapped by hardman Dan Sullivan in a dramatic new storyline. Coronation Street's Martin Platt and Sally Webster are about to have a fling on a camping trip, while Roy and Hayley are to go on the run with their foster son. What is the point in watching the soaps when we all know what is going to happen because plot lines are fed to the tabloids months in advance? Good drama is full of unexpected twists and turns. Watching soaps now is like reading yesterday's weather forecast - a mind-numbing waste of time.

A CATHOLIC priest who admitted sexually assaulting a parishioner in a series of "terrifying" encounters, says there is no point in asking him to pay damages because he has taken a vow of poverty and therefore has no possessions. So what happened to his vow of celibacy?

Published: 29/06/2001