Post by Focus on Jul 5, 2013 6:58:44 GMT
The taxpayer will foot a massive bill to give James Bulger’s killer a new home and identity after the Parole Board today approved the release of Jon Venables, ignoring the wishes of the murdered toddler’s parents.
Jon Venables, left, and Robert Thompson, bottom right, tortured and killed 2 year-old James Bulger
The Parole Board announced that Venables, now 30, will be released from jail just over three years after he was sent back to custody for distributing child pornography.
But Ralph Bulger, James’ father, said the family was “filled with terror” by the “reckless” decision, and warned that allowing Venables to live freely under a false identity had already been shown to be deeply flawed.
Venables and Robert Thompson were 10 years old when they abducted, tortured and killed two year-old James in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993, leaving his battered body on a railway line.
The youngest convicted murderers in modern English history were released on licence in 2001 after being granted lifetime anonymity by the courts to protect them from vigilante attacks.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman refused to comment on the arrangements that will now be put in place for Venables’ release.
But to keep his true identity secret the killer will require full identity documents, training on his fake “backstory” and support from probation officers, as well as a new home funded from the public purse.
It is estimated it costs the taxpayer £250,000 every time someone is given a new identity for their own protection.
Venables has been re-homed and given a new identity on three previous occasions after his cover was blown.
Venables had his parole revoked in March 2010 and was jailed for two years after admitting downloading and distributing indecent images of children.
He appeared by video link at the Old Bailey and admitted possessing the child pornography, which showed girls as young as eight being raped and other abuse of children aged about two.
The court heard he had posed online as a 35-year-old married woman called “Dawn” to trade images with another paedophile.
Earlier this year James’s mother, Denise Fergus, and Mr Bulger both addressed Venables’ parole hearing and pushed for him to remain in prison.
Denise Fergus, mother of James Bulger
Robin Makin, Mr Bulger’s solicitor, said: “For Ralph and his family the living nightmare continues and is exacerbated by the problems now created by the reckless decision to free Jon Venables without any publicly disclosed safeguards.
“The authorities have already experimented with Jon Venables living a lie and it did not work. The decision to release Jon Venables is misguided and fills Ralph with terror.”
Mrs Fergus said: “Venables has shown time and again that he cannot be trusted and that he is a danger to the public and himself.
“He lies and manipulates people for his own sick ends and I believe the Parole Board have made the wrong decision.
“He is still a huge risk and they should not let him out after just three years.
“I doubt it will ever be safe to be let him out under another false identity. They should keep him locked-up for a long time yet.”
A spokesman for the Parole Board said: “We’ve had confirmation that all parties have been told and we can confirm that it was a release decision. He will be released.”
[It is estimated it costs the taxpayer £250,000 every time someone is given a new identity for their own protection] - Well I for one am not happy at having to contribute to the cost of hiding a child murdering, peadophilic son of a bitch that as far as I'm concerned can rot in hell!! - Fx
