JON VENABLES, one of two boys who murdered Liverpool toddler Jamie Bulger in 1993, has been refused parole following a decision by the UK parole board that he still poses a risk to the public.
Before deciding to refuse his application, the parole board heard testimony from the parents of Jamie, who said their lives remained a nightmare following the brutal killing of their son on a Liverpool train track.
Venables and Robert Thompson were released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years of a sentence for the murder.
But Venables was arrested and jailed for two years in July 2010 after he was convicted of downloading and distributing indecent images of children.
The decision by the parole board means Venables will continue to serve the remainder of the life sentence given for Jamie Bulger’s killing after his indecent images conviction reaches its half-way point next month – when he would normally be expected to be released.
Welcoming the decision, Jamie’s mother, Denise Fergus, said: “Venables is a very dangerous individual and it’s a huge relief to hear that he will not be getting out any time soon. He has proved in the past that he is not reformed and that he cannot be trusted.”
Venables had shown “no remorse” for killing her son, she said, and had not been fit for release when he was freed in 2001.
“He’s a very cunning individual and God knows how many other crimes he might commit, and how many other people might suffer, if they did let him out,” she said.
Solicitor Robin Makin, representing Jamie’s father, Ralph Bulger, said releasing Venables was “too big a risk”, adding: “The concern that Ralph has is that the ultimate thrill he is seeking is to relive something similar to the original murder. There is clearly something very disturbing about [Venables].”
Venables and Thompson were just 10 years old when they took two-year-old Jamie from a Liverpool shopping centre, where he had momentarily wandered away from his mother, to a railway line about two miles away. They then tortured him and killed him.