Jon Venables will remain in prison after telling a Parole Board panel that he was not seeking release. He said he needed further offending work in custody before any move out of jail. The panel still had to decide whether he should stay locked up.
Parole Board review
At the outset of the hearing, Mr Venables submitted an opening statement to the effect that he accepted the need to undertake further offending work in custody and so was not seeking release. The panel heard from probation officers based in the prison and in the community, three psychologists and a psychiatrist.
All bar one of those professionals concluded that he should remain in prison. Panel members also heard a victim personal statement that conveyed the impact of his crime and later offending.
James Bulger and the Strand
Venables and Robert Thompson tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger in 1993 after snatching him from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside. Venables and Thompson led the toddler out of the Strand shopping centre while his mother, Denise Fergus, was paying for shopping at a butchers.
The boys, who were truanting from school, led James two-and-a-half miles to a railway track where they beat him to death. After a three-week trial at Preston Crown Court, they were found guilty of murder.
Venables in custody
In June 2001, Thompson and Venables were released on life licence and handed new identities. Venables was recalled to prison in February 2010 after indecent images of children were found on his computer, then freed again in August 2013 with a second new identity before being called back in November 2017 for the same offence.
Parole judges considered his case again in September 2020. In the latest review, panel members found there were concerns about how well he would work with probation staff if released and how open and honest he would be in supervision, and they said further work in custody was needed to address his sexual interests.
