One of James Bulger's killers has pleaded guilty to having more than a thousand indecent images of children and a paedophile manual.
Jon Venables, who was released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years for the murder of two-year-old James, was returned to prison last November after he was caught with the pictures.
James's mother Denise Fergus and father Ralph Bulger were in court on Wednesday morning to hear the latest guilty pleas.
Venables and his friend Robert Thompson tortured and killed James in Liverpool in 1993 when they were both aged 10. They were granted lifelong anonymity with new identities when they were freed on licence.
Prosecutor Louis Mably QC told the court how Venables' computer was seized in November last year. Officers uncovered images of children mainly aged between six and 13, although some were younger.
They found a paedophile manual aimed at teaching how to have sex with children "safely".
Venables also had software on his laptop that enabled him to access the dark web.
As he was being taken to a police station, the court heard that Venables admitted he had "let people down".
He said: "This is my own fault. I have let people down again. I have had stupid urges, inquisitive. I'm not going to be seeing this for a lot of years. It's not going to be a slap on the wrist for me."
At the court hearing, Venables - referred to as AB - pleaded guilty to four counts.
He admitted having 392 category A images, 148 category B and 630 category C pictures. He also pleaded guilty via video link from custody to having a paedophile manual on or before November 17 last year.
Caught with child abuse images for second time
It is the second time Venables has been caught with child abuse images. In 2010, he pleaded guilty at the same court to charges of downloading and distributing child pornography and was jailed for two years.
That was not the only time he had breached the terms of his licence. In September 2008, he was arrested on suspicion of affray after a drunken brawl and was given a formal warning by the probation service.
Later the same year, he was cautioned for possession of cocaine after he was found with a small amount of the class A drug.
James Bulger's mother: Killers rewarded for crime
The mother of murdered toddler James Bulger has said his killers were not punished but "rewarded" for their crime.
Venables and Robert Thompson were given new identities and granted lifelong anonymity when they were freed on licence in 2001.
Denise Fergus said she never wanted them jailed for the rest of their lives for the torture and murder of her two-year-old son in Liverpool in 1993, when they were both 10 years old.
But speaking in a new documentary, Ms Fergus said: "I've never had justice for James."
She told Sir Trevor McDonald: "I never said 'lock them up and throw away the key'. I thought doing a proper sentence in a proper prison would be justice for James. But that never happened.
"They never got punished for what they done. In fact, if anything, they were rewarded."
Venables was returned to prison in November, having been charged over indecent images of children for a second time.
Ms Fergus said: "I did say that if they weren't punished properly, then they would go on to re-offend and that's exactly what happened with Venables."
The documentary, James Bulger: A Mother's Story, will be broadcast on ITV on Thursday night, 25 years after the toddler was abducted from Bootle Strand shopping centre.
His mother told how it was a "last-minute decision" to go shopping that day and "the first time I left the buggy at home".
"I let go just to get the purse out of my bag to pay for what I was buying and when I looked down as I was handing the money over, I looked down and he's gone - that's how quick it was," she said.
Ms Fergus described how "panic" set in as she frantically searched for missing James. But when CCTV emerged of his abductors, she thought: "Kids aren't going to harm another child."
Retired detective superintendent Albert Kirby, who led the Bulger murder inquiry for Merseyside Police, said: "When I was doing the briefings it wasn't uncommon for me to see some of the officers visibly shaken by what happened, crying."
Another officer told how Ms Fergus "dropped to the floor" when she found out about the death of her child.
"I just blanked out. I just remember, when I come round there were loads of people around me," Ms Fergus said.
"I'm just thinking 'it can't be true. It can't be happening'. You know, one minute they're going to come through that door and say 'you know what, we've made a massive mistake, here he is'."
Ms Fergus added: "I think I was in shock like everyone else. No one expects two 10-year-old boys to take a child and do what they done.
"It's just beyond words really how two 10-year-olds could be so evil."