Jon Venables to remain in prison after telling Parole Board he should stay jailed
James Bulger's killer Jon Venables will not be released after telling a Parole Board panel he should remain in custody. The board cited ongoing risks of sexual offending against children.
Venables stays behind bars after Parole Board hearing
Jon Venables, one of the killers of two-year-old James Bulger, will remain in prison after telling a Parole Board panel he should not be released, thisisthecoast.co.uk reports.
Venables and Robert Thompson were both aged 10 when they were convicted of torturing and killing James, whom they snatched from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, on 12 February 1993. James's body was later found on a railway line; he had been beaten to death with bricks and a metal bar.
The Parole Board held a three-day hearing last month to consider whether Venables, now 44, should be freed. The hearing took place in private, despite calls from James's parents for it to be held in public.
According to documents published on Monday, Venables "articulated his protracted and extreme remorse for his crime" and "accepted the need to undertake further offending work in custody and so was not seeking release."
The summary of the decision noted that Venables had admitted "he had a long-term sexual interest in children/indecent images of children" and "has completed a considerable amount of work in prison to address this area of risk." The panel nonetheless expressed concern over "continuing issues of sexual preoccupation in this case."
"The panel considered that there were future risks of Mr Venables again viewing indecent images of children/child sexual abuse images, and also of Mr Venables progressing to offences where he might have contact with children, and both of these present a risk of causing serious harm to others," the documents stated.
Venables and Thompson were released on licence with new identities in 2001 after serving sentences for James's murder. Venables was recalled to prison in February 2010 after indecent images of children were found on his computer. He was freed again in August 2013 before being recalled in November 2017 for the same offence. In February 2018 he pleaded guilty to making indecent images and possessing a paedophile manual, receiving a 40-month sentence. A further parole bid was rejected in 2023, with the board finding he still posed a danger to children.
James's mother, Denise Fergus, had said a public hearing would have made her "finally feel listened to." The Parole Board declined to open the proceedings to the public, stating it would be "very difficult for Jon Venables to give evidence" given the risk of him "being listened to by people who are seeking to get information so that they can kill him."
Parole hearings are ordinarily held in private but can be made public "in the interests of justice."
Source: Sky News