{"id":389390,"date":"2025-09-01T14:13:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T14:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/389390\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T14:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T14:13:12","slug":"james-bulger-killer-jon-venables-set-for-new-parole-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/389390\/","title":{"rendered":"James Bulger killer Jon Venables set for new parole hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venables is once again eligible to apply for parole after his last bid was rejected two years ago<\/p>\n

13:40, 01 Sep 2025Updated 13:43, 01 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

\"JonJon Venables(Image: BWP Media via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Child killer Jon Venables, who kidnapped and murdered <\/a>two-year-old James Bulger<\/a> in 1993, is up for parole. Venables was 10 years old when he, along with Robert Thompson, tortured the innocent toddler before abandoning his lifeless body on railway tracks in Walton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pair had snatched James from Bootle<\/a> Strand shopping centre, where the toddler was shopping with his mum, Denise Fergus<\/a>, on February 12 1993. Grainy CCTV footage <\/a>captured little James being led away by Venables and Thompson, who walked him more than two miles across Liverpool to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.<\/p>\n

The brutality of the murder and the young ages of both Venables and Thompson deeply shocked the country. The boys became the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century following a trial in Preston, where the judge Mr Justice Morland described their actions as “unparalleled evil and barbarity”.<\/p>\n

Venables was released from prison under a new identity in 2001. But in March 2010, he was recalled after downloading and distributing more than 100 images of child abuse. He was jailed for two years, before being granted parole again in July 2013.<\/p>\n

In November 2017 he was arrested and recalled to jail on suspicion of possession of images of child sex abuse. It emerged that police had found a laptop, stashed behind the committed paedophile’s bed, which he had used to download more than 1,000 images of children being raped or abused from the dark web.<\/p>\n

He was also able to obtain a paedophile manual – a document which gave him detailed instructions on how to \u201csafely\u201d have sex with small children.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Bulger was murdered by Venables and Thompson in 1993<\/p>\n

He was handed a 40 month sentence for those offences in February 2018. Parole bosses considered his case in September 2020, and a renewed application was made in November 2023. However, this was denied<\/a>, and Venables was ordered to serve at least another two years in prison.<\/p>\n

According to a summary of the Parole Board’s decision at that time, Venables had “accepted that he had a long-term sexual interest in children\/indecent images of children”, despite taking part in a “considerable amount of work in prison to address this area of risk”. He had a history of taking drugs and secretly trying to use the internet in breach of licence conditions.<\/p>\n

The panel was “concerned by continuing issues of sexual preoccupation in this case”, warning there were “future risks” of him viewing more child sexual abuse images and “progressing to offences where he might have contact with children”.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe funeral of James Bulger, Sacred Heart Church, Kirkby. Ralph Bulger helps carry the coffin as his wife Denise follows. 1st March 1993.<\/p>\n

Now aged 43, Venables is once again eligible for parole, the Parole Board has confirmed. A spokesman told the ECHO that a hearing date has not yet been set.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Parole Board said: “We can confirm the parole review of Jon Venables has been referred to the Parole Board by the Secretary of State for Justice and is following standard processes.<\/p>\n

“Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.<\/p>\n

“A panel will carefully examine a huge range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as explore the harm done and impact the crime has had on the victims.<\/p>\n

“Members read and digest hundreds of pages of evidence and reports in the lead up to an oral hearing.<\/p>\n

“Evidence from witnesses such as probation officers, psychiatrists and psychologists, officials supervising the offender in prison as well as victim personal statements may be given at the hearing.<\/p>\n

“It is standard for the prisoner and witnesses to be questioned at length during the hearing which often lasts a full day or more. Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our number one priority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venables is once again eligible to apply for parole after his last bid was rejected two years ago…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[2648,188,134961,12,16,15,9597],"class_list":{"0":"post-389390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-bootle","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-james-bulger","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-walton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}