KILLER’S NEW FACE
PLASTIC SURGERY FEAR OF BULGER’S DAD
BY TOM PETTIFOR ONE of James Bulger’s killers could be given plastic surgery to disguise his identity when he is released from prison, a court heard yesterday.
Jon Venables, who along with Robert Thompson murdered the two-year-old in 1993, was jailed in February after he pled guilty to looking at extreme child abuse images and possessing a “sickening” paedophile manual.
James’s father and uncle have now launched a legal challenge against an order made almost two decades ago which has allowed Venables, now 35, to live under a cloak of anonymity.
Their lawyer, Robin Makin, told the High Court in London that the killer paedophile could get “yet another new identity and plastic surgery”. He said that would “be a further upset to my clients” who have already “suffered enormously”.
His claims came during an application by Ralph and Jimmy Bulger to alter the terms of the injunction.
Makin told judge Sir James Munby that the injunction was granted on the basis that Venables was rehabilitated and would not re-offend. But he has since been convicted twice.
Makin was criticised by Sir James for failing to give any indication of the changes he would like to be made to the court order.
He gave the lawyer until June 4 to outline the changes he wants.
The court heard Venables has
Venables and Thompson were both 10 when they tortured and murdered James after snatching him from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside.
They were later granted lifelong anonymity and have lived under new identities since their release in 2001.
Venables was jailed for three years and four months in February after he was caught with indecent images of children for the second time.
When he was arrested, he told police he was plagued by “stupid urges”.