Anguish over 8-year terms

TRAGIC James was just shy of three THE guilty verdicts for James’s killers did little to ease Denise’s agony.

Despite former Home Secretary Michael Howard originally extending their eight-year sentences, the decision was later overturned and Venables and Thompson were released on licence in 2001, aged 18.

They never served time in an adult jail and were granted lifelong anonymity after experts insisted that they had been rehabilitated.

But in 2010, Venables was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to downloading child abuse images. He returned to jail last November and will stand trial later this year for another alleged offence.

Denise is now backing a petition for a public enquiry into his original release.

For more details, visit https://petition. parliament.uk/petitions/206851