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Ralph Bulger Makes Plea For Jon Venables Never To Be Released

by | 24th, June 2011

JON Venables, one of James Bulger’s two killers, is back in the news. James Bulger’s father, Ralph Bulger, has made an victim impact statement to a parole board, who are considering the rehabilitation of Jon Venables. Mr Bulger says the murder of his son “transformed” him.

At Liverpool Crown Court, Mr Bulger’s solicitor, Robin Makin, says the move to release Venables was “crassly stupid”. He added:

“Ten years ago this month, in June 2001 a decision was made by the parole board to release Jon Venables. Trying to put somebody like Jon Venables back out into society in an area adjacent to Merseyside … was crassly stupid, it was never going to work.”

Because Venables would never be able to move on?

“At that time we very much wanted to make all possible representations to the parole board. They refused to allow us to do so. We submitted a lot of material to them. Quite astonishingly the parole board have no records of what happened 10 years ago. And the ministry of justice don’t seem to have been able to have located any of those papers. So we have had to start again. It has been a very stressful time for Ralph.”

He goes on:

“He has unfortunately suffered some depression, intrusive thoughts, nightmares, sleep problems and post-traumatic stress. The authorities have not provided any support or help to deal with those issues over the years. We explained to the parole board about how Ralph had been affected when James was abducted. The whole process has transformed him into someone he doesn’t really want to be. He has been transformed into someone he really isn’t, whereas they [the parole board] have been trying to turn Jon Venables into someone he really isn’t instead of really looking at who he really was.”

What is the job of the justice system. To punish? Yes. To deter? Maybe – depends if a 10-year-old boy hellbent on killing a two-yer-old child understands the consequences. To rehabilitate? Maybe… Venables was a child when he tortured and killed a child.

Other killers have been released. They have not received national news coverage. Venables does. Why?…



Posted: 24th, June 2011 | In: Reviews Comments (15) | TrackBack | Permalink