A dad-of-four says he has been forced into hiding as a result of an online hate campaign which wrongly accused him of being James Bulger's killer Jon Venables.
More than 2,500 people signed up to a Facebook page naming David Calvert as the killer, while a text campaign falsely outing him was circulated to mobile phones across the UK. The message, forwarded to tens of thousands of phones, began: "Jon Venables' new name is David Calvert. He lives in Fleetwood."
Mr Calvert and his family had previously lived in Fleetwood, Lancashire. However, they have now moved and say they are fearing for their lives as a result of the campaign.
Mr Calvert said: "It's been terrible. My children are petrified. My little boy wants to know why dad's on TV and why people are being horrible to dad. I opened my own Facebook account the day I found out it had started again, cause I had friends who told me to see if I could have a look at what people were putting on there."
He added: "Everyone's saying they've been on Facebook arguing with these people. But arguing just doesn't matter. Once somebody's got something in their head, that's it. They won't read about it, they'll just do what they want to do because they're small minded."
The 27-year-old says he was first mistaken for the killer in 2005. Police installed a panic alarm at his Fleetwood home after locals said he looked like the child killer, also now 27. Officers also confirmed that Mr Calvert had no links to the Bulger case, however, he says recent publicity over the case has left him vulnerable.
He said: "The police have said it's not me. They're sticking by that, because it's true, it's not me. But people aren't willing to listen to that so I don't know what's going to happen.
"It's been terrible. Just sickening. I mean, I've been in trouble before, people causing trouble and silly petty things. But when it comes to something of this calibre, for a crime as heinous as it was, it's unreal that anyone could even think of pinning it on you. Jack Straw should be doing the right thing and telling people who it is."
Jon Venables and his friend Robert Thompson were convicted of the horrific killing of toddler James in Merseyside in 1993. The pair, who were both aged ten at the time of the killing, were sent to prison for an initial minimum term of eight years. They were released in 2001 and granted new identities, however, Jon Venables has since been returned to custody.
Reports suggest he was arrested for child porn offences. However, on Wednesday, Justice Secretary Jack Straw said it was "not in the interests of justice" to release further information about the case.
Mr Straw defended the granting of new identities to the killers, saying the move had prevented "lynch mob" attacks.
He told a committee of MPs: "There can be circumstances, very rare indeed, where it can be judged that the physical safety, maybe the life of somebody being released from custody can only be preserved if they are given a fresh identity."
He added: "We don't have capital punishment in this country. We have never had rule by lynch mob, even when we did have capital punishment."
However, Mr Calvert said the Government should also be offering assistance to people like him to end up caught up in the furore surrounding the case.
And he blasted the Government for not taking action to keep the public informed, saying: "The Government hasn't done anything, not a damn thing, to help me. I'm at my wits end, I don't know what to do. Jack Straw needs to do something about it.
"More people will get caught up in this. I've not been able to sleep, my friends say they've not been sleeping because they're worrying about what's happening with me. I just don't know what I'm going to do, how I can protect myself.
"I don't know how people can be so idiotic and small minded. They all know he's locked up, it's proven he's locked up. Every paper, every news programme, I've proved that I'm not that person. But they'll still do it, still point the finger, because they've nothing else to do. Maybe they think it's fun, ruining other people's lives. It's just terrible."
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said no further comment could be made on the case. She added: "Jack Straw said that Jon Venables has been recalled to custody – David Calvert isn’t in custody so that should indicate to people that he is not Jon Venables."
