This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

James Bulger’s killer Jon Venables has been sentenced to 40 months in prison after pleading guilty to having more than 1,000 indecent images of children.

Venables, who was released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years for the murder of the two-year-old, returned to prison in November after he was caught with the pictures.



He pleaded guilty on Wednesday to having indecent images of children and having a paedophile manual.

A spokesman for Denise Fergus, James’s mother, said she faced a “horrendous ordeal” as she listened to the “vile behaviour” of her son’s killer being outlined in court.

Sentencing, Mr Justice Edis told Venables: “This case is unique because when you were 10 years old, you took part in the brutal murder and torture of James Bulger. That was a crime which revolted the nation and which continues to do so, even after the 25 years that have passed since it happened.

“The facts of what you did are notorious and there is no need for me to repeat them here.”

The judge said the images of abuse Venables had downloaded were “heartbreaking for any ordinary person to see”.

Edis added that given Venables’ background, it was significant that a number of the images were of crimes against young boys.

Venables and his friend Robert Thompson tortured and killed James in Liverpool in 1993 when they were 10. They were released under new identities and granted lifelong anonymity.



James’s father, Ralph Bulger, was also in court to hear the latest guilty pleas.

In a documentary to be aired on ITV on Thursday night, Fergus says her son’s killers were not punished but “rewarded” for their crime.



“I’ve never had justice for James,” she said. “I never said, ‘Lock them up and throw away the key’. I thought doing a proper sentence in a proper prison would be justice for James. But that never happened.

“They never got punished for what they did. In fact, if anything, they were rewarded.”

James Bulger: A Mother’s Story will be broadcast 25 years after the toddler was abducted from Strand shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside.

In the documentary, Fergus said: “I did say that if they weren’t punished properly, then they would go on to reoffend, and that’s exactly what happened with Venables.”

Venables admitted having 392 category A, 148 category B and 630 category C images. He also pleaded guilty to having a paedophile manual on or before 17 November 2017.



After Venables’ arrest last year, the attorney general launched an investigation into claims that his identity had been revealed on social media.

In 2013, two men who posted images they claimed to be of Venables and Thompson were given nine-month sentences, suspended for 15 months. Breaking the injunction on identifying Venables and Thompson carries a punishment of up to two years in prison.

When Venables was arrested, James’s mother said: “Venables has now proved beyond any doubt what a vile, perverted psychopath he has always been.”

It is the second time he has been recalled to prison over child abuse images. In 2010, Venables was sent back to jail for two years after pleading guilty to charges of downloading and distributing them.

In September 2008, he was arrested on suspicion of affray after a drunken brawl, and was given a formal warning by the probation service for breaching the good behaviour terms of his licence.

Later the same year, he was cautioned for possession of cocaine after he was found with a small amount of the class A drug.

In the ITV documentary, Fergus recounts how it was a “last-minute decision” to go shopping on the day of her son’s death.

“I let go [of James] just to get the purse out of my bag to pay for what I was buying, and when I looked down as I was handing the money over, I looked down and he was gone – that’s how quick it was,” she said.