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Jon Venables Only Has Himself To Blame: There Is No Whitewash

by | 24th, November 2010

JON Venables is back in the news. The investigation into how one of James Bulger’s killers was able to download child porn has cleared officials of any wrongdoing.

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke says Jon Venables “was properly supervised“. The Sun says this has sparked “fury”. But it hasn’t.

Still, the Sun likes to confuse the crime with the system and ads that it has “emerged Mr Clarke has refused to see James’s mum Denise Fergus again”.

Why should he meet with Denise Fergus, James Bulger’s mother? Whatever the reasons, the Sun does not make the same error. Denise Fergus is the voice of the woman whose son was taken was murdered. So, if we want reason, who better to turn to than the young victim’s mother? Says she:

He is making a big mistake by trying to brush this under the carpet… Ken Clarke wants to wash his hands of me. He wrote earlier in the year say he will no longer deal with me direct and I must go through the probation service. I feel betrayed. This report is a classic cover- up. But he should think it through.”

Says Clarke:

Sir David has concluded Venables was properly supervised. He also concluded that Venables alone is responsible for his further offence, and it could not have been prevented or predicted by any reasonable supervision.

Could Venables have been stopped?

Omand said probation officers could only have stopped Venables looking at child porn by watching him round the clock.

The Liverpool Echo blames the system:

JON Venables became a perfect product of the system that tried to give him his freedom back. Schooled in how to lie in a bid to protect himself after the murder of toddler James Bulger, he used the techniques he learnt to ultimately deceive those who taught him.

Jon Venables never knew how to misbehave before he was placed in the system? Here’s another question: were the probation staff and therapists too optimistic?

Sir David added: “Officials had invested a great deal in Jon Venables. They wanted him to succeed, they knew of his very real fear of exposure, and they may have therefore perhaps unconsciously been unwilling at times to accept that he could actually be letting them down in such a fundamental was as he did.”

Another section of the report said: “With hindsight, officials were too optimistic about his growing maturity”.

We learn:

In 2008, when he was arrested for a drunken fracas outside a pub and again, separately, for possessing a wrap of cocaine.

At neither time was he recalled. Says Denise Fergus:

They have bent over backwards to support Venables and featherbed him with a new life and the best of everything. I was promised that Venables and Thompson would be back behind bars if they re-offended while on parole, but Venables was involved in a punch-up and was caught with cocaine. These were breaches of his parole and he should have been put back behind bars for them. The probation officers were more keen on protecting him than protecting the public from him.”

Aren’t we all, ultimately, responsible for our actions?

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James Bulger the 2 year old boy who went missing in the Bootle area of Liverpool. 2/2/01 Proceedings which could decide the release of the killers of toddler James were getting under way in private. * Lawyers for Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 18, were presenting their arguments before a parole board hearing, held at a secret location believed to be somewhere in London, for the first time. The killers were not at the preliminary hearing but were being informed of its outcome at the separate secure accommodation centres in northern England where they have been since their convictions for James' murder in 1993. The three-strong parole board panel was today listening to legal arguments, examining reports and dossiers and discussing which witnesses are required for the full hearing. * 3/12/93 3 youths being questioned. 4/5/93 Two 10yr olds pleaded not guilty to the abduction and murder of James. 31/10/93 Boys go on trial 24/11/93 Court verdict 25/5/94 12/6/97 Home Secretary Michael Howard to increase the sentence to 15 years Undated library filer of murdered toddler James Bulger, from Liverpool. 30/07/1996 - James Bulgers killers Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were sentenced to indefinite life sentences. 12/06/97: The House of Lords is due to rule on whether former Home Secretary Michael Howard was right to increase the sentences of the two boys convicted of James' murder from eight to fifteen years. 06/03/98: Lawyers for Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, the two boys convicted of murdering James, are taking their case to the European Commission of Human Rights, claiming they were not given a fair trial. 16/12/1999 - Thw Euorpean Court of Human Rights rules that Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were given an unfair trial. Judges ruled that the environment of an adult court and the intense publicity surrounding the trial prejudiced the hearing and breached human rights 12/3/00 British shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe reacted with 'great disappointment' to news that killers of toddler James Bulger could be freed in three years. She said the Bulger family would be 'devastated' by moves to release Robert Thompson and Jon Venables so soon after the 1993 murder of the two-year-old on a Liverpool railway line. The Home Office has refused to comment on reports that Home Secretary Jack Straw will this week announce he will stand by the minimum 10-year sentences set by the Lord Chief Justice. 8/1/2001: Family Division President Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss ruled that the boys identities and whereabouts must be kept confidential for the rest of their lives. 20/6/01: The Parole Board was beginning its deliberations on the second schoolboy killer of toddler James Bulger. Robert Thompson, now 18, was due to attend the meeting at a secret location after the panel completed its examination of his partner in the February 1993 murder, Jon Venables. Both could be freed within days if the panel decides they are no longer a risk to the public. 20/06/01 The Parole Board was, beginning its deliberations on the second schoolboy killer of toddler James Bulger. Robert Thompson, now 18, was due to attend the meeting at a secret location after the panel completed its examination of his partner in the February 1993 murder, Jon Venables. Both could be freed within days if the panel decides they are no longer a risk to the public. The pair were just 10 when they abducted two-year-old James from the Strand shopping precinct in Bootle, Merseyside, before torturing him and battering him to death on a railway line. *07/08/2001....Undated handout family collect photo of murdered boy James Bulger. A controversial comedy centered on a teenager who abducts and kills a child was, taking to the stage at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Age of Consent has faced a barrage of criticism by some people who say the story is too similar to that of James Bulger. The play by award-winning writer Peter Morris tells the story of a toddler's murder through the eyes of teenage killer Timmy. 12/2/03: Thousands of Merseysiders were expected to observe a one-minute silence, to mark the tenth anniversary of the murder of toddler James Bulger. The Liverpool Town Hall flag was being flown at half-mast in memory of the two-year-old Kirkby boy whose battered body was found on an isolated railway line.



Posted: 24th, November 2010 | In: Reviews Comments (21) | TrackBack | Permalink