Overview
- The Parole Board has ruled that Jon Venables’s latest parole bid will be heard in private rather than in a public hearing requested by media organisations and James Bulger’s mother.
- The board said a public session would increase the chance he could be identified, would sensationalise the case, and would make it difficult for him to give evidence because of threats to his safety.
- Denise Fergus had applied to have the hearing opened and to observe proceedings, and she was told earlier this year that Venables would be given another opportunity to put his case before the board.
- Venables was 10 when he and Robert Thompson murdered two-year-old James Bulger and was granted lifetime anonymity; he was released on licence in 2001 and has since been recalled after convictions for possessing indecent images in 2010 and 2017.
- Recent changes to Parole Board rules allow public applications in high-profile cases, but the board retains discretion to refuse on safety or identification grounds, so this private hearing will be the next procedural step in his parole review.