True crime Evil child killer may be sent to Oz

He was just 10 when he killed a toddler. Now, 26 years later, Jon Venables may be moved to Oz

In 1993, two 10-year-old British boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, caused shockwaves around the world when they snatched little blond, blue-eyed James Bulger, who was just two, from a shopping centre and tortured, sexually assaulted and murdered him.

It was an act so evil committed by two children considered so depraved that they were jailed for life after being tried as adults and

officially becoming infamous as Britain’s youngest convicted murderers in 250 years. Yet they were released on licence in 2001 and granted lifelong anonymity and new identities.

BACK TO JAIL

The decision outraged the British public and parents around the world, but the protests fell on deaf ears and the two young monsters were given a chance at rehabilitation and a new start in life.

Thompson has not been heard of since his release, but Venables, who is now aged 36, was sent back to jail for another two years in 2010 when he was found to be in possession of more than 1000 sickening pornographic images of children.

And it is Venables who may now be sent to Australia, New Zealand or Canada because of the huge cost of keeping his identity secret in the UK, where judges ruled that his anonymity must be protected because of

the high chance he could be harmed or killed.

There were such strong rumours that Thompson had been relocated to Perth with his gay partner in 2006 that Australian government officials were forced to specifically deny it to ease public concerns.

Now it’s being mooted that his evil accomplice could be relocated to another country – again to protect Venables’ anonymity. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said last week he wasn’t welcome there, but Australian officials have refused to comment on the secret plan.

The suggestion that Australia could become home to one of the most notorious child killers in the world met with widespread condemnation last week as Aussies took to social media to express their outrage.

When Venables and Thompson committed their evil act, the world spent two long days hoping and praying that James, who would have celebrated his third birthday just a month later, would be found alive and well.

A picture taken from CCTV footage showing the toddler being taken by the hand by the boys and led out of the busy shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, became a defining image in a case that gripped the world.

HORRIFIC ACT

It later emerged that the two schoolboys snatched James while his mum was in a butcher’s shop. They led the distressed toddler four kilometres away – with at least 38 people later reporting seeing them. Some witnesses said they saw James crying and upset, but did not act because they assumed the two boys with him were relatives.

The pair took James to a railway line where they poured paint into his eyes, stoned him, clubbed him with bricks and dropped a heavy iron bar on him, before laying him across the railway line where his body was hit by a train – to make it look like an accident. James suffered 42 injuries.

“I’ve dealt with many murders but I’ve never seen the extent of the injuries that were inflicted on someone incapable of defending himself,” said former head of the Merseyside Police Serious Crime Squad Albert Kirby. “You couldn’t think the person responsible for this was a child.”