The mother of James Bulger has revealed one of his killers may never be freed under new parole rules. Denise Fergus has said that the justice secretary, Dominic Raab, has promised her a new bill would keep Jon Venables, who has reoffended twice, behind bars.
Raab's Reform Bill would keep Venables in jail in a move called 'historic' by James' mum. Denise has also recently spoken to a police forensic psychologist who worked on the case in 1993 which has brought her further comfort.
Professor Paul Britton revealed told her he did not think Venables and Robert Thompson's attack on two-year-old James was sexually motivated. He also told her the killers age, both 10 at the time, was not an excuse for their actions.
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It was Denise’s first conversation with Prof Britton since her son’s murder and, in an exclusive interview with The Mirror, she said: “For 30 years there were lots of details about James’s death that I have wanted to avoid, but I finally felt strong enough to hear it.
"He was clear that once Venables and Thompson were named as possible suspects, in the frame, he knew very quickly that they were guilty. And whilst others were blind-sided and distracted by the fact that they were such physically small children, which some thought meant that it was impossible they could have committed such a crime, his brain quickly defined them as murderers.
"Just hearing that fact alone, I felt something fundamental shift in me. That has been such a block over the years. The excuse that they were ‘only children’ themselves who didn’t deserve the adult labels of ‘murderers’ has always been hard for me to bear.
"Hearing it from someone trained and impartial was an important and healing moment. He also told me in no uncertain terms that Venables and Thompson had ‘no proper sexual involvement with James’.
"He said James was ‘injured in all sorts of different ways and whilst he might have been injured in a way that would have included, if you like, all of his body, there wasn’t what you would call an adult sexual attack on him’."
Venables has twice been returned to jail for possessing images of child sex abuse, and Denise said: "While I have no doubt Venables is now a sexual deviant and a massive danger to society, it was a great peace of mind to know that James’s murder was not sexually driven."
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab also added to her peace of mind when he told her Venables would not walk free again under his proposed new “two strikes and you stay in” policy. Speaking ahead of the release of her updated autobiography I Let Him Go, Denise told the Mirror: “What we have been promised has made the last 30 years of pushing for James worth it.
"Mr Raab has told me straightforwardly that under his new legislation it would basically be a case of ‘two strikes and you stay in prison’ . That would apply to the three most serious types of criminals –paedophiles, child killers and terrorists. There would not be endless chances at rehabilitating anyone who had committed this type of crime.
"And that meant, under Raab’s planned new law, Venables would never see the light of day. I feel hopeful for the first time in 30 years that this could become law and we’d have justice for James and for future potential victims. It would be historic.”
Speaking for the first time about the meeting with Mr Raab last summer in his office at Westminster, Denise, 54, said: “In that meeting I was hearing words I’d always wanted to hear. His lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear it all because I never believed I would hear those words.
“The words that under his plans, Venables would never walk free again. I didn’t think this day would ever come. I froze."
February 12 will be the 30th anniversary of James’s murder by Venables and Thompson after the two boys had snatched him from a shopping centre in Bootle, Liverpool, an abduction captured on CCTV. They were convicted of murder in November 1993 and detained indefinitely, but released, aged 18, in 2001 and given new identities after spending just eight years in young offender institutions. Thompson, 39, has not reoffended, but Venables was sent back to jail in 2010 and 2017 after being caught with child sex abuse images on his PC.
You can read the full report here.
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