Overview
- The Parole Board published on Friday that it has received an application from Denise and Stuart Fergus asking for Jon Venables’s next parole hearing to be held in public.
- Venables has been given another chance to put his case to the Parole Board but no hearing date has been announced and the board will decide whether the hearing should open to the public.
- The Fergus family says the request is driven by 'significant public interest' and by extensive social media discussion they say spreads misinformation and retraumatises them.
- Campaigners and the family point to Venables’s history of release, multiple recalls and later convictions for indecent images as making this an exceptional case for public scrutiny.
- Legal constraints will shape any decision because a High Court injunction still bars publication of Venables’s and Robert Thompson’s new identities and the Parole Board must balance transparency with protection and safety.