James Bulger killer given another two years
One of the murderers convicted for the killing of James Bulger, 2, is back behind bars.
Jon Venables, now 27, was sentenced to a two-year term for the loading and distribution of child pornography on his computer. Almost 100 images of indecent acts involving minors as young as two, were found on his computer hard-drive.
The Old Bailey court heard that he had deleted more than 1,000 other images from the computer. Venables pleaded guilty to a total of three charges, by a videolink from his prison cell. Only Mr Justice Bean saw the man’s face.
The 1993 abduction and murder of the toddler, James Bulger, horrified the nation. Haunting CCTV images of Venables and his friend, Robert Thompson, both only 10 years old at the time, leading Bulger out of a Liverpool shopping centre, were shown on nationwide TV.
Venables and Thompson were sentenced to be imprisoned until they reached adulthood. In 2001 the two killers were pronounced rehabilitated, and let out on lifetime parole. At the time of their release they were provided with new identities.
Attending the hearing, Denise Fergus, James Bulger’s mother, said two years was not long enough. Last night, the Ministry of Justice said Venables had been arrested in 2008, for affray and possession of drugs. The justice secretary at the time, Mr Jack Straw, did not cancel Venables’ parole.
In an additional revelation, Venables was said to have posed, on the internet, as a young mother who was prepared to pander her eight-year-old daughter to paedophiles.