James Bulger’s murderer Jon Venables jailed for possessing child abuse images again

James Bulger killer Jon Venables has allegedly been returned to prison after he was caught with child sex abuse images again. The police found the sickening images in the now-35-year-old killer’s computer during a routine visit last week.

Venables, whose new anonymous identity is legally protected, reportedly breached the terms of his life licence, so he was taken under heavy guard to a maximum Category A jail. The Sun, which first reported the arrest, did not name the prison for legal reasons. He has not been charged with any offence yet, but he is currently under major police investigation.

“Venables’ recall is a huge blow to those who have championed the efforts to reform him over the past 25 years,” a source told the tabloid. “Every expense has been afforded him, every expert opinion offered, every opportunity given. And yet here we are again and by anyone’s standards, the question has now to be asked whether he has finally run out of chances. If he is found to have committed a new offence, then why should the public continue to pay through the nose to protect his anonymity any longer?”

This is the second time he has been returned to prison. In 2010, he was also jailed for possessing indecent images of children. He was given a second new identity following his release from prison in 2013.

Venables and friend Robert Thompson were just 10 years old when they abducted, tortured and murdered 2-year-old James Bulger from a shopping centre in England in 1993. They saw him standing outside a butcher’s shop while Bulger’s mother, Denise Fergus, was temporarily distracted. They led him out of the centre and had him walk for a few miles. They eventually led him to a railway line and began torturing him. Bulger was found to have had suffered 10 skull fractures and 42 injuries. They then laid him across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with a rubble. The hapless child was cut in half by a train.

Venables and Thompson were arrested and found guilty of the child’s abduction and murder. They had just turned 11 that year. They each served eight years in prison and were given new identities by the court upon their release.