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This week marks the 30th anniversary of the murder of two-year-old James Bulger, who was led out of a shopping centre and to his death by two young boys.

The toddler was taken from a shopping centre by two children, formerly known as Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, in Bootle, Merseyside, on February 12, 1993. He was led to a train track where he was tortured and murdered. His killers were just 10 years old at the time.

Sixteen years later, in 2009, in a case with chilling similarities, two young South Yorkshire boys tortured and almost killed two other boys in Edlington, Doncaster.

Two brothers, aged 10 and 11, kicked, punched and stamped on their victims, throttled and cut them, sexually humiliated the boys, hit them with branches and stones and dropped part of an old ceramic sink onto one of their heads.

The pair were responsible for an horrific torture attack on two young boys in Doncaster.

The brothers put cigarettes into wounds and tried to burn one of the young boys, who were both left covered in blood, after 90 minutes of 'prolonged, sadistic violence'.

One of the victims pleaded with his attackers to be allowed to die in a desperate bid to end his ordeal.

And police officers who dealt with the case were offered counselling afterwards.

The attackers spent six years in custody following the violence they inflicted and just before the younger brother turned 18, when they could have both been named by the media for the first time, they were granted lifelong anonymity. It is understood they have new identities.

The pair were freed and granted “truly exceptional” lifelong anonymity when it was ruled both were “committed to the path of rehabilitation”.

The High Court granted lifelong anonymity on the grounds the brothers would be “at serious risk of attack” if named.

When they were sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Justice Keith said the pair got a 'real kick out of hurting and humiliating' their victims.

The court heard they had grown up in a 'toxic' home environment of 'routine aggression, violence and chaos' before moving to Edlington to live with foster carers.

The brothers admitted causing their victims grievous bodily harm with intent and other offences.

Edlington torture brothers: Why pair who nearly killed two young boys can never be named