A former daily editor who reported on the James Bulger murder case has taken part in a TV documentary to mark 25 years since the horrific killing.

Mark Thomas, left, was working as a reporter with the Press Association when the two-year-old was abducted and killed by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson in 1993.

Mark, who later became editor of the Liverpool Daily Post and its North Wales namesake, went on to write an acclaimed book about the case entitled ‘Every Mother’s Nightmare.’

Last night he took part in an ITV documentary about the killing entitled ‘James Bulger: A Mother’s Story’ in which the toddler’s mother Denise Fergus was interviewed by Trevor Macdonald.

In the programme, Mark recalled the heartbreaking moment one woman almost saved James’ life after spotting him being dragged along the street by Thompson and Venables.

Said Mark: “There was a specific witness who spotted them. James had his head down, appeared to be distressed, and she actually went up to them and asked if he was alright.

“She actually got Robert to leave hold of one of his hands and her little daughter took hold of James’ hand at the time but then Jon Venables said ‘It’s alright, we’re taking him to the police station’.

“And she said ‘are you alright?’ to James and James kept his head down and didn’t say anything. He was sobbing and he was led away.”

Speaking about why he thought no one had intervened, Mark added: “The reality of it is that nobody in their wildest imaginations could have thought that two 10 year old boys could have been planning something like that.”

In the programme, Mrs Fergus insisted she lays no blame at the foot of witnesses for her son’s murder.

“There’s only two people to blame in this and that is the two that took James. They were there in the beginning and they were there in the end,” she said.