James Bulger killer Jon Venables to be given private parole hearing

Child killer Jon Venables will have his latest parole bid held in private despite a plea from his victim's mother for it to be made public.

Venables and Robert Thompson, both aged 10, were jailed for killing two-year-old James Bulger after snatching him from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1993.

Now aged 44, Venables will have his case heard by parole chiefs at an oral hearing more than two years after his last appeal.

The decision by the Parole Board comes despite James's mother, Denise Fergus, and a number of media organisations applying for a public hearing.

Ms Fergus said it would help combat "misinformation" about the case which had a "retraumatising impact" on her.

She said a public hearing would also improve general understanding of the parole process and would have made her "finally feel listened to".

Parole hearings are usually held in private, but they can be made public "in the interests of justice".

In reaching its decision, the Parole Board said a public hearing would make it "very difficult for Jon Venables to give evidence" because he could be "being listened to by people who are seeking to get information so that they can kill him".

On behalf of the Parole Board, John Saunders said: "I note that a high bar has been set for a public hearing to be in the interests of justice and I have decided that this high bar is not met in this case."

In 2023, the Parole Board rejected the bid and found Venables still posed a danger to children and could offend again.

He was released on licence in July 2001 and recalled to prison in February 2010 after indecent images of children were found on his computer.

He was again freed in August 2013 and then called back in November 2017 for the same offence, with parole judges considering his case again in September 2020.

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A spokeswoman for Ms Fergus previously said her application to observe the hearing had been granted.

Victims have been able to attend parole hearings held in private under reforms rolled out nationally in April as part of efforts to boost confidence in the justice system.

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