James Bulger killer Jon Venables to have latest bid for freedom heard by Parole Board
Child murderer Jon Venables’ final bid for freedom will be heard by the Parole Board.
The case of the 43-year-old man who tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger in 1993 will be heard at an oral hearing by probation chiefs, more than two years after his last appeal.
In 2023, the Parole Board rejected the offer and found that he still posed a danger to children and could continue to reoffend.
A spokesman for his family said the new trial had “re-opened unimaginable trauma” for James’ loved ones.
Venables was jailed along with Robert Thompson after a pair of 10-year-old James abducted him from a shopping center in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993.
Venables was released on license in July 2001 and was recalled to prison in February 2010 after indecent images of children were found on his computer.
He was released once again in August 2013 and summoned again for the same offense in November 2017; Parole judges reconsidered the case in September 2020.
Daily Mirror It was stated that James’ family was informed about the parole hearing on Tuesday and it is expected to be held next month.
There is no date yet to be approved by the Parole Board.
Spokesperson Kym Morris told the newspaper on behalf of James’s mother, Denise Fergus: “Once again, Denise Fergus has been forced to confront a process that has reopened unimaginable trauma.
“Denise was hoping to find some direction… that would provide her with some measure of peace and protection from further distress. That hope is now gone.”
Ms Morris added that Ms Fergus’s application to observe the hearing had been granted.
Victims were able to attend specially held parole hearings under reforms introduced nationally in April as part of efforts to increase confidence in the justice system.
