Bulger killer's parole hearing to be held in private

Child killer Jon Venables will have his latest parole bid heard in private despite a plea from his victim's mother for it to be public, the Parole Board has decided.

Venables tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger in 1993.

The 44-year-old will have his case heard by parole chiefs at an oral hearing more than two years after his last appeal.

James's mother Denise Fergus had demanded that the hearing be held in public to help combat "misinformation" about the case which had a "retraumatising impact" on her.

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

Various media organisations also applied for a public hearing.

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".

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

Venables was jailed alongside Robert Thompson after the pair of then 10-year-olds snatched James from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993.

Venables 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 once 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.

A spokeswoman for Denise 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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