Overview
- The Parole Board announced on Monday that Venables’ oral parole bid will be heard in private in a two-day hearing scheduled for mid‑October.
- The board cited a longstanding anonymity injunction and assessed threats to Venables’ life, saying a public hearing would increase the risk of identification and could hinder witnesses from giving candid evidence.
- Victim observation was approved but, because of the injunction, victims cannot watch the hearing live and will be allowed to listen to a redacted audio recording only after it has been cleared for compliance.
- Venables was given lifelong anonymity after the 1993 killing of James Bulger, was released on licence in 2001, and has twice been recalled for offences involving indecent images of children and had a parole bid rejected in 2023.
- The decision highlights tensions in recent reforms that let victims and media apply for public parole hearings while leaving the Parole Board discretion to restrict openness when safety or court orders make meaningful transparency impossible.