BULGER KILLER’S NEW BID FOR FREEDOM
Venables case going to Parole Board James would have been 30 next week
THE Parole Board is set to consider the freeing of James Bulger killer Jon Venables.
But the two-year-old’s father Ralph told the Mirror: “I am terrified he will strike again.
“He is a dangerous, predatory child abuser.”
THE father of James Bulger fears his murderer Jon Venables will kill again, as the Parole Board prepares to consider freeing him.
In a hearing expected to be referred within weeks, the Parole Board will consider whether to release Venables, who with Robert Thompson killed twoyear-old James Bulger in 1993. Both killers were just 10.
They served eight years in secure juvenile detention before being released on licence with lifelong anonymity but Venables, now 38, is currently back in jail for having images of child sexual abuse.
In an exclusive interview with the Mirror, James’s dad Ralph Bulger, 53, said: “He went on to commit more crimes against children. I don’t believe he will stop until he has killed again.
“It’s vital that when it takes place the Parole Board looks in depth at the sexual abuse of James when he was tortured and murdered by Venables and Thompson. It is directly linked to Venables’ later sex crimes against children.
“If they don’t take this into account, they are failing to deal with the magnitude of how dangerous he is.
“He is a dangerous, predatory child abuser and killer and I am terrified he will strike again and harm another child like my James.”
At his last trial it was revealed that Venables frequented the dark web and Ralph fears he is connected to an online ring of violent paedophiles.
Ralph said of the Parole Board: “If they let him out again and he commits further crimes, the board should be called into question to face accountability.
“Ever since James was murdered in 1993, the sexual torture of James has been brushed under the carpet.
“Venables might have been 10 years old then but now he is a grown man and a predator with a disgusting lust for children. He is wired wrong and has always been. I warned against his release the last time, but the Parole Board ignored me and instead were hoodwinked by Venables into believing he was reformed.
“Keeping him in prison is the only way to make sure he can’t target kids again.
“He was given a second and third chance but blew it.
“We have also asked the Parole Board and the Ministry of Justice if Venables has had plastic surgery to change his looks to go with his new identity.”
While little has been heard of Robert Thompson, Venables has twice been recalled to prison.
He went back to jail in
2010 for having child abuse images on his laptop.
He was released again in
2013 with another new identity but in November
2017 he was sent back to prison for the same offence.
The indecent images on his laptop included many category A photos – the most serious type.
Venables also pleaded guilty to having a “paedophile manual” that tells perverts how to have sex with
children. Venables is serving a 40-month sentence and would normally have been allowed out after serving
If I fail to warn other families, I’m failing my murdered son
RALPH BULGER DAD OF MURDER VICTIM JAMES
20 months which he reached in October. But he cannot be freed until the Parole Board recommend it as he has a life licence, meaning he is on parole until he dies.
Venables and Thompson tortured and murdered little James after abducting him from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, while his mum was momentarily distracted.
Ralph wants Venables to stay in jail but says he should anyway be stripped of his secret identity, arguing that protecting children from being abused is more important than the murderer’s own safety.
He said: “If I fail to warn other families, I am failing my murdered son.”
High Court judges have repeatedly blocked all such efforts.
Ralph split from James’s mother Denise in 1994, a year after the murder that shocked Britain.
She has also campaigned to keep Venables behind bars.
Sentencing him at the Old Bailey in February 2018 over the child abuse images, Mr Justice Edis told Venables:
“You took a very great risk when you committed these offences and this suggests to me a compulsive desire which you could not control.
“You did this on a day when you were undergoing assessment in the contact of your life licence.
“This shows how manipulative and dishonest you are.
“The children depicted were often very young and vulnerable, there is discernible pain and distress suffered.”