James Bulger's mother pleads with PM to stop toddler’s killer Jon Venables from being freed
12 October 2022, 09:10
James Bulger’s mother is pleading with Liz Truss to step and block a bid for freedom by her son’s killer.
Denise Fergus has written to the PM ahead of Jon Venables's parole hearing saying “he still poses a serious danger to families like ours.”
Venables and Robert Thompson were both 10 when they kidnapped, tortured and murdered two-year-old James in Liverpool 25 years ago.
They were released on licence after serving eight years in secure children's units and were given life time anonymity.
Venables has been returned to prison twice for child abuse images. He is still in jail.
Ms Fergus told The Mirror: "We need the Prime Minister or her new Justice Secretary to step in immediately to make sure my son's killer stays firmly behind bars where he belongs. We are calling on them to, please, intervene now.
"I've got a list of questions I want to put to her and answers that I need. I don't want to be fobbed off.
"I am saying exactly how I feel. I'm saying how I feel so let down, again."
Following a face-to-face meeting with previous Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, Ms Fergus was told MPs were set to debate her son's murder.
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However, Ms Truss sacked Mr Raab when she became PM and shelved his planned Bill of Rights reform which would have allowed ministers to block the release of the most dangerous criminals for public safety reasons.
It was also reported that new Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis has offered to meet Denise next week.
In Venables' last failed bid for freedom in 2020, the parole board said he still showed an attraction to sexual violence as the reason for keeping him locked up.
Venables and Thompson were given new identities to protect them from the risk of vigilante attacks and were made the subjects of so-called 'Mary Bell orders', lifetime anonymity court injunctions.
