James Bulger’s mother hits out as son’s killer jailed over child porn
The mother of murdered toddler James Bulger accused authorities of covering up the extent of his killer’s “vile” behaviour as he was locked up once again.
Jon Venables has been living anonymously since his release from a life sentence for the kidnap, torture and murder of two-year-old James 25 years ago.
But in November last year he was caught with a stash of indecent pictures of children on his computer for a second time.
During a hearing at the Old Bailey, he pleaded guilty to downloading 1,170 images from the “dark web” over the course of several months as well as having a “sickening” paedophile manual.
Mr Justice Edis jailed him for three years and four months but said the Parole Board will decide when he should be released back into the community.
He said the latest images were “vile” and “heartbreaking”, adding that many showed abuse of young boys like James.
Mr Justice Edis told Venables: “This case is unique because when you were ten years old you took part in the brutal murder and torture of James Bulger.
“That was a crime which revolted the nation and which continues to do so even after the 25 years that has passed since it happened.”
Of the images Venables downloaded, the judge said it would be “heartbreaking for any ordinary person to see this kind of material”.
The judge described the manual as a “vile document” and told Venables that by consuming these “products of barbarous evil”, he caused abuse to happen.
James’s mother, Denise Fergus, and father, Ralph Bulger, were in court for the hearing.
Afterwards, a spokesman for Mrs Fergus called for an inquiry and accused authorities of “colluding” to cover up Venables’s pattern of vile behaviour.
The court heard that he breached his parole in 2015 by accessing the internet but was only handed a police caution rather than being brought back to court.
The spokesman said: “There should be no further collusion or attempts to cover up his offending behaviour. If rebailed he must be kept on a very tight leash.”
He said the sentence was “too short” and Venables would leave court “believing he got away with it”.
James was kidnapped, tortured and killed by Venables and Robert Thompson, who was also ten, in February 1993.
Venables, who has life-long anonymity, was released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years for murdering James.
In 2010, Venables pleaded guilty to charges of downloading and distributing child abuse images and was jailed for two years, although he was not released until 2013.
That was not the only time he had breached the terms of his licence.
In September 2008, he was arrested on suspicion of affray after a drunken brawl and was given a formal warning by the Probation Service.