More than five years after their release, stories and rumours about Venables and Thompson continue to circulate. In January 2006, The Sunday Mirror newspaper reported that Robert Thompson had fathered a child with a girlfriend who remained unaware of his past. The paper also reported that Thompson had taken heroin since his release, and had been accused of shoplifting, but that he now worked "in an office" and earned "a reasonable wage". In March 2006, however, it was reported in The Sun newspaper that Thompson was in a "settled relationship" with a gay male partner who was made fully aware of his conviction, and that he had been living with the man at a "secret address" in North West England for "several months"
In May 2006 it was widely rumoured that a man called Sean Walsh, who had been sentenced to 15 years for attempting to kill his pregnant girlfriend and her three year old daughter, was Robert Thompson living under his new identity. Walsh had moved to Ireland in 2001, the year the Bulger killers were released, was known to have convictions as a juvenile in the UK and had been in regular contact with the psychiatric services in Wigan (approximately 20 miles from Liverpool) from the age of 15. At one point, Walsh claimed to be Thompson but the authorities dismissed this.
In June 2006, a widely circulated e-mail message claimed that Dante Arthurs, a man accused of murdering a child in Perth, Western Australia, was in fact one of James Bulger's killers living under a new identity. Again, this was revealed to be untrue. This claim has also been denied by authorities (they would very unlikely to have been granted visas to live in Australia, due to their criminal history).
In April 2007, it was reported that the Home Office has spent £13,000 on an injunction preventing a non-UK magazine from revealing the new identities of the James Bulger killers. In September 2007, it was rumoured that Robert Thompson was living under the first name "James" in Carshalton, Surrey, with his girlfriend and their young child. An older woman was also listed at the same address. This older woman's maiden name was remarkably similar to the maiden name of Thompson's mother, although some have dismissed this as mere coincidence.
A May 27, 2007 article in The People claimed that Jon Venables had become a born again Christian. The 24 year old, now living with a new identity, reportedly attends Sunday night service, midweek prayer group and a separate Bible class. Venables has asked a ministerial team to pray for him and have his sins forgiven by God. Britain's Daily Mail has reported that Venables is getting married to a girlfriend who has no idea of his criminal history. He has been advised not to say anything to her about the Bulger murder.
In June 2007, a computer game based on the TV series Law & Order, entitled Law & Order: Double or Nothing (made in 2003), was withdrawn from stores in the UK following reports that it contained an image of Bulger. The image in question is the famous CCTV frame of Bulger being led away by his killers, Venables and Thompson. The scene in the game involves a CGI detective pointing out the picture and then asking the player to investigate the kidnapping. Bulger's family complained, along with many others, and the game was subsequently withdrawn by its UK distributor, GSP. The game’s developer, Legacy Interactive (an American company), released a statement in which it apologised for the image's inclusion in the game; according to the statement, the image’s use was 'inadvertent' and took place 'without any knowledge of the crime, which occurred in the UK and was minimally publicised in the United States'.
On December 16, 2007, The People newspaper claimed that Jon Venables was stabbed during a fight after punching another man who was flirting with his girlfriend. Venables was rushed to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. This rumour has yet to be confirmed