Jon Venables granted private parole hearing despite plea from James Bulger's mother
Jon Venables, who tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger in 1993, 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.
In February 1993, two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, abducted two-year-old James Bulger from a shopping centre in Bootle.
They led him to a railway line, where James was assaulted and killed.
His body was found two days later, and both boys were arrested and convicted of murder later that year.
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They were released on licence in 2001 with lifelong anonymity orders.
Venables, now 44, has since been recalled to prison twice for possessing indecent images of children, most recently in 2017, and remains in custody.
Venables 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'.
A number of 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.
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.
Rhiannon Ingle