He should not be freed while still a threat to children

IS it in their nature, or in their nurture? Are offenders born or are they made? This is the fundamental question of criminology.

For me, the answer is neither one nor the other. It’s a messy combination of both – a combination that is unique to that individual’s circumstances.

In Jon Venables’ case, how he came to be a paedophile has its roots in his childhood.

He was the middle child, his brother and sister both had learning difficulties.

Venables was regarded as the “bright one” and there were pressures on him to perform.

But if you look at reports from his teachers, he had already begun to behave oddly in class.. for example he suspended himself from coat hangers like a bat, and he constantly got into trouble.

While he wasn’t born a paedophile, Venables appears to have become fixated on children from a young age and would have had sexual feelings towards children before abducting James Bulger.

While the reason he and Thompson covered James in paint appears to have been to dehumanise him, there is also evidence they assaulted him in ways that are clearly sexual.

DANGEROUS

“Sex offender” is a catch-all term and accommodates a wide number of activities and behaviours – some of which are merely troubling and others which are positively dangerous.

Treatment depends on what they have done and how long they have been doing it, although in theory they can change their ways.

However, it is much more difficult to see change with sex offenders like Venables, who is at the extreme end of the scale and seems to have become fixated on abusing very young children.

If he is looking at images of babies and infants, those would indicate extremely dangerous fantasies which would require a great deal of intensive psychotherapy before he could ever be allowed back into the community.

The important thing is to have the sex offender acknowledge they are guilty of a crime which is sexual in nature and to want to change.

I’ve never been able to interview Venables, but from what I have read, there has been a range of issues for him related to drugs and alcohol addiction – and perhaps also narcissism in terms of him wanting to continually reveal who he is.

He wants to go to pubs and say, “I’m Jon Venables”; he downloads child pornography.

It’s fairly obvious Venables is a 35-year-old man who wants to continue to abuse children.

These behaviours make him very dangerous. Frankly, until he has demonstrated he is no longer a risk to our children, he should never be released.