The child killer Jon Venables will make a fresh attempt to be released from prison at a parole hearing in November.
Venables and his schoolfriend, Robert Thompson, were both 10 when they murdered two-year-old James Bulger after taking him from his mother’s side in a shopping centre in Merseyside in 1993.
Venables, now 41, has been in prison since 2017 after being convicted for a second time of possessing child abuse images.
A two-day parole hearing has been set for 14 November and will be heard in private, despite efforts to open up the Parole Board process.
Bulger’s parents, Denise Fergus and Ralph Bulger, have consistently argued for Venables to spend the rest of his life in prison.
A three-person panel will decide whether Venables, who has a new identity, continues to pose a risk to the public after reviewing evidence including testimony from prison and probation officials, and Venables himself.
If the panel believes he poses little risk, he could in theory be released within days – although the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, has the power to ask for the decision to be reviewed and would probably exercise this right.
Bulger’s murder remains one of the most harrowing, and far-reaching, crimes of the past century in Britain and evokes strong public emotion 30 years on.
His killers remain the youngest people to have stood trial for murder in the UK. The pair have new identities, but only Thompson has stayed out of custody since their release in 2001.
Venables was convicted in 2017 of possessing child abuse images for a second time when he was found with a “paedophile manual” and more than 1,100 unlawful photos or videos, one-third in the most serious category. Some showed the sexual abuse of male toddlers.
He applied for a parole hearing in 2020, but was refused.
On the 30th anniversary of Bulger’s murder this year, the solicitor for Ralph Bulger said that the prospect of Venables’ release was a “daily nightmare” for him.
Robin Makin, of the law firm Liverpool Legal, said in February: “We are really concerned. As far as Ralph and Jimmy are concerned, he is a real danger.” Makin, who has represented Ralph since his divorce from Fergus, shortly after the murder, said the father had been “completely let down” by the Ministry of Justice.
Writing in the 30th anniversary edition of her memoir, I Let Him Go, Fergus said: “Thirty years does seem like yesterday, the wounds don’t ever heal when you have buried a child, but they certainly can never do so when one of the murderers responsible persists in reoffending and then continues to bid for freedom”.
A Parole Board spokesperson said: “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.
“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.
“Members read and digest hundreds of pages of evidence and reports in the lead up to an oral hearing. Evidence from witnesses including probation officers, psychiatrists and psychologists, officials supervising the offender in prison as well as victim personal statements are then given at the hearing.
“The prisoner and witnesses are then 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.”
