No parole for Bulger killer Venables
The killer of English toddler James Bulger has lost his bid to be released on parole, the victim's mother said.
Jon Venables, one of two boys who abducted the two-year-old from a shopping centre in Bootle in February 1993, was jailed for two years last July after pleading guilty to downloading and distributing indecent images of children.
The Parole Board has been considering the case for his release, but James's mother, Denise Fergus, wrote on Twitter: "good news all just heard venables is NOT getting released xxx"
The Parole Board had to decide whether Venables still posed a risk to the public and will have considered the nature of the offence, the prisoner's offending history, and his progress in jail.
It will also have considered any psychologists' reports, probation officers' reports, prison officers' reports, any statistical risk assessments that have been completed and the view of the Secretary of State.
The board also heard James's father, Ralph, describe the "daily nightmare" of life since his son's murder.
Speaking outside Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, Mr Bulger's solicitor, Robin Makin, said his client had been forced to re-live the details of the murder, including the torture and sexual abuse which James suffered at the hands of his killers.
Mr Makin said the murder had "transformed" Mr Bulger, adding: "Whereas Jon Venables... in a sense what they have been trying to do is transform him into somebody he really isn't," Mr Makin said.
Venables and Robert Thompson were 10 when they abducted James and walked the toddler several miles to a railway line in Walton where they tortured and killed him.
They were convicted of murder and served eight years in prison before being freed and issued with secret new identities.
Mr Makin also said the authorities had shown an “inability to cope” with putting a criminal like Venables back into society in an area adjacent to Merseyside.
The solicitor said: “It was crass and stupid. It was never going to work. Some of these concerns were raised 10 years ago.”
He added: “The problem as we see it is this: the authorities, because of their liberal agenda, don’t really want to see Jon Venables for the person that he actually is.”
He said not enough attention had been paid to the sexual element of the murder and that previous reports were “fundamentally flawed”.
Mr Makin likened Venables to a half-bottle of “rotten wine”.
“The authorities just don’t want to see what is there – the sexual element, how that has undoubtedly scarred Jon Venables all his life and came to manifest itself later on.
“They don’t want to see the rotting bit. They just look through the glass at the top and don’t deal with it and that’s not the way to deal with things.”
Ms Fergus, who did not attend Friday’s hearing, made a statement to the parole board in writing.
