James Bulger killer admits possessing child abuse images
ONE of the killers of James Bulger today pleaded guilty to having indecent images of children for a second time.
Jon Venables, who was released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years for the murder of the two-yearold, was returned to prison last November after he was caught with the pictures.
He pleaded guilty this morning to having indecent images of children and a “paedophile manual”.
Venables and his friend Robert Thompson abducted, tortured and killed James in Liverpool in 1993 when they were both aged 10.
They were granted lifelong anonymity with new identities when they were freed on licence.
At a hearing at the Old Bailey, the defendant, referred to as AB, pleaded guilty to four counts via video link from custody. He admitted having 392 category A images, 148 category B and 630 category C pictures.
He also pleaded guilty to having a paedophile manual on or before November 17 last year.
James’s mother Denise Fergus and father Ralph Bulger were in court to hear the latest guilty pleas.
It is the second time Venables has been caught with child abuse images. In 2010, he pleaded guilty at the same court to charges of downloading and distributing images and was jailed for two years.
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.
Later the same year he was cautioned for possession of cocaine after he was found with a small amount of the class A drug.