A slight thread drift, or at least a change of tack.

The point has been raised on this thread, if Venables starts dating, and moves on to perhaps a possible long term relationship, should the partner of his choice be kept in ignorance of who he really is, and is it reasonable that they should live their life with him based on official lies as to his identity?

How would they feel if, say in 10 years, they found out the truth?

The question is relevant because in the news today is the inquiry about a situation where just this actually happened, except the official fake identity was that of a police officer who infiltrated an activist group.
Report: [urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21629991[/url

Reading the harrowing accounts of how learning the truth affected the women concerned, the years of their life which they can't replace that they had 'wasted' by putting their energies into a realtionship with someone who wasn't who they thought he was, where is the balance of fairness? Would it have somehow made it OK, as long as the women had never found out the truth? Or is there a difference between the state providing fake identities for officers, as opposed to for offenders?

I think there is a difference as police officers will always assume this identity temporarily whereas an offender would have to 'become' that new identity.

Still a very difficult one though

I'd think from the womans point of view, 'temporarily' would be worse than 'permanently'