Posts Tagged ‘Jon Venables’
James Bulger’s Mum Denise Fergus Gets A Sorry From Maggie Atkinson, The Woman She Wants Fired
MAGGIE Atkinson, the Children’s commissioner admits causing ‘hurt’ caused by saying Jon Venables and Robert Thompson had unfair trial, says the Guardian this afternoon.
Schools Minister Ed Balls sprang to the defence of his protege Atkinson after her interview with The Times was published on Saturday – the one with the “unpleasant thing“.
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Jon Venables Back On Streets With New Identity
A DEFIANT(allegedly) Jon Venables, 27, joint murderer of two-year-old James Bulger is boasting he will soon be freed from prison and back on the streets under his false identity.
Today’s Daily Mirror , repeats its claim Venables, recalled from life-licence because of alleged offences, has been moved a new prison but says:
The “arrogant” killer of James Bulger is refusing to keep a low profile back in jail – and keeps telling warders he will be “free soon”.
This would be the super-max jail where Venables is being kept in isolation, guarded by 20-strong crack team of secret squirrels?
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Jon Venables Revealed As Destroyed Ed Balls Says Denise Fergus Is Wrong
JON Venables & James Bulger: TREADING where Justice Secretary Jack Straw may not have put his beautifully formed toes, UK Schools Minister Ed Balls has entered the Jon Venables-child killer criminal responsibility ring.
Note: This is mawkish Ed who tapped into the Baby P Mourn Porn by telling us that “as a dad”…:
“I have to separate the emotion I feel as a father from my job as Secretary of State… Nothing I can do next week can being back Baby P or take away the suffering he endured.”
As Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel puts it:
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste…”
Balls defied Parliament to appoint Dr Margaret Atkinson as Child Commissioner and yesterday had to go in to bat for her after a huge political gaffe.
The Minister responsible for Education in England and Wales made matters that much worse and yesterday said, the then ten-year-old, Venables and joint killer Robert Thompson were not “intrinsically evil”
That let the Tories straight back into the political fight and David Davies, above, Conservative MP for Monmouth, told the Daily Express:
“His comments are as astonishing as they are offensive.
“Evil is the only way to describe the murderers of James Bulger.”
Balls, who made the same stupid fumble as Jack Straw by calling the victim’s mother by the wrong name, had been directly contradicting Denis Fergus, 42, the mum of murdered two-year-old James Bulger.
She has already called for the dismissal of the newly-appointed Children’s Commissioner Margaret Atkinson who for some unknown and what can only be described as insensitive or bizarre reason announced via The Times at the weekend the age for criminal responsibility should be lifted from ten to 12 and Venables and Thompson should NOT have been prosecuted.
Ed Balls said Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were victims of an abusive upbringing.
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Posted: 16th, March 2010 | In: Key Posts, Politicians | Comments (17)
Jon Venables Is Going Madder In A Super-Max Jail Near You
JON Venables is in high security prison for his own safety. But he’s not that far away. Not really. Two thirds of the prisoners considered to be most dangerous in Europe are being entertained at a Supermax Prison near you. If you live in mainland UK and Northern Ireland.
It’s not nearly as easy to pinpoint the alleged new secure prison holding murderer Jon Venables prison as may be imagined.
If the Daily Mirror is bellowing the correct tale and it is true the secure unit is a “special jail isolation unit is one of only four in the UK”. It then gets more difficult. The figure for the specialist tougher then tough glasshouses in the UK is more than double the quoted four.
An excellent London School of Economics (and Political Science) report tells us:
“Supermax prisons – large prisons designed for holding prisoners in strict and prolonged solitary confinement – officially operate to protect society from its most violent and dangerous criminals but in reality are also used to house petty non-violent offenders and the mentally ill.”
There are only 15 Supermax (that’s their title) Category A prisons in the whole of Europe. Only five are NOT in mainland Britain. Of the five there is one in Northern Ireland and another in Eire.
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Posted: 15th, March 2010 | In: Reviews | Comments (4)
Clues To Jon Venables’ Identity And James Bulger Story In Pictures
JON Venables, one of James Bulger’s killers, has been moved to a “SAFER JAIL”. We know this because the Mirror screams from its front page:
“BULGER KILLER MOVED TO SAFER JAIL”
Safer for whom
James Bulger: This IS Jon Venables
JON Venables has been transferred to a new jail to keep him safe from other prisoners.
That was inevitable. Readers learn that Venables is in isolation. He is guarded by a hand-picked team of 20 prison officers who are “sworn to secrecy”. But this is tabloid nonsense. All prison guards must sign the Official Secrets Act.
As the prison warden’s exployment contract states:
* All Civil Servants owe duties of confidentiality and loyal service to the Crown. This means that you are required to exercise care in the use of information which you acquire in the course of their official duties and to protect information which is held in confidence. You are also subject to the Official Secrets Act 1911 -1989.
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Posted: 15th, March 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (8)
Jon Venables’ Sex, Porn, Hadley Freeman, Playstation And Maltesers
ALL in all, Jon Venables has been very bad news for Justice Secretary Jack Straw, writes AGW.
It is difficult to comprehend why the stumbling release of the news of the recall to jail of Jon Venables, 27, one of the joint killers of two-year-old James Bulger and the subsequent furore was handled so badly. It could not have been worse.
Straw was forced into an uncomfortable Thursday meeting with James’ mother Denise Fergus where she agreed to staying quiet after being told nothing and in the same week came half-expected news and a recommendation to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12-years-old
Yesterday’s Times carried an interview with the newly-appointed Child Commissioner Dr Maggie Atkinson, who moved into the job about the same time as Jon Venables was being lifted two weeks ago, she described the toddler’s killing as “unpleasant” and said his killers should never have been prosecuted.
Dr Atkinson called for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised from 10 to 12, meaning Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, (both ten at the time) would never have stood trial.
Denise Fergus says ten-year-olds can be truly evil
That gave Denise Fergus the opportunity to come out and punch her full weight once again.
The deeply angered mother called for the new Commissioner to be sacked at once
for “twisted and insensitive” comments about her son’s murder.
The BBC reported:
“Denise Fergus spoke out after Maggie Atkinson suggested James’s killers should not have been prosecuted because, aged 10, they were too young.“Ms Atkinson had said children under 12 did not fully understand their actions.
“But the Ministry of Justice said those over 10 knew the difference “between bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing”.
“Mrs Fergus told reporters: “This woman owes James and me an apology for her twisted and insensitive comments. Then she should resign, or be sacked.
“To say that his killers should not have been tried in an adult court is stupid.
“They committed an adult crime – a cold-blooded murder that was planned and premeditated – and they were tried accordingly.”
She added: “It is a shock to people like Dr Atkinson that children can be truly evil by 10.
“But it is a fact and I fear there will be more of them and we need laws to be tightened up so we can deal with them.”
The People today has Laura Armstrong’s everyday story of prison folk.
There, in the prison which shall forever be a secret place, known only to every tabloid hack in the UK:
“Arrogant Jon Venables is taunting prison staff – bragging that he is “untouchable”.“James Bulger’s killer – put back behind bars two weeks ago over child porn claims – shamelessly trades on the fact that his identity must be kept a strict secret.
“Venables, 27, who spends his time on a PlayStation and munching up to 10 bags of Maltesers a day, told officers: ‘One hair on my head gets hurt and you’re in the s***.’
“Only a handful of senior staff at the jail where he is held know his true identity. Officers have been warned they face the sack – or even jail terms – if they reveal his identity.
“A Home Office source said: “Venables is lording it up in there and quite frankly it’s sickening. He is not even paying for his own sweets – the prison picks up the tab.
“He eats Maltesers all day and has a PlayStation to himself to try to keep him happy.
“Everyone thought he would be terrified of people finding out who he is but it seems that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“He’s as cocky as they come and knows that if anything happens to him then heads will roll.”
So then, only a handful of prison officer, and a Home Office “source” on their way to join Venables in the secret chokey for breaching secrecy rules and telling Laura all about Evil Jon
In the Observer Peter Preston, Guardian Editor for over 20 years, takes a serious look at the coverage and points the finger at the great unwashed’s ability to make direct comment widely available via sites such as this. Jon Venables case reveals the dark side of online opinion
Watch for the subtle example of Preston’s unconscious old editor patronising with:
“Yet this time another voice opened another front. Hadley Freeman at the Guardian is a fashion expert turning into a terrific columnist.”
Fashion writer with a brain, Oh Dear.
I expect Hadley will be simpering with girlie pleasure at that mention from one of the greats.
The News of the World spots what Anorak has said from the beginning. There may be no trial no public exposure, no satisfaction for Denise Fergus and the Bulger Family.
In Sunday newspaper-speak the fact the Jon Venables is in jail after life-licence recall and there may be no trial is treated as a “Bombshell”
Jon Venables, left and Robert Thompson
James Bulger’s ten-year-old murderers
Venables is once again “Evil” as he escapes the dock .
The outraged News of the World says ”
Jon Venables will escape prosecution for child porn offences but could still spend TEN YEARS in jail without trial.
That is how long the powerful parole board could cage him for breaching the conditions of his release on licence.
The News of the World has learned that Justice Secretary Jack Straw is being pushed by senior advisors [sic] to take the “easier option” of leaving the Venables case in the hands of parole chiefs.
The alternative is a trial which could blow Venables’ cover if he has to face charges of possession of Category Four material – one of the worst levels of child porn.
A source told us: “There is a drive to persuade the Justice Secretary and the Crown Prosecution Service not to charge Venables as it would provide everyone with the easier option to manage.
“However there is a strong feeling that this is too little too late.
“Mr Straw should have taken a harder line from the start but now the genie is out of the bottle, causing a frenzy which is proving a nightmare to keep a lid on.”
Venables was thrown back in jail nearly three weeks ago after police allegedly found child porn images on his laptop, breaching his parole conditions over the 1993 murder of two-year-old James Bulger in Bootle, Merseyside.
It gets worse for the NoTW:
Mr Straw’s advisors [sic] have warned him that taking Venables to court would lead to “lurid details coming out in full Technicolor”. The Justice Department are also:
• TERRIFIED of vigilante attacks if Venables’ new identity becomes public knowledge.
• DESPERATE to avoid the trouble of creating a THIRD identity for him at a cost to taxpayers of over £250,000.
• PARANOID that Venables, said to be a broken man over the storm engulfing him, will commit SUICIDE in jail.
The newspaper then gets down to full lurid Sunday style and introduces former Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby who talks of sexual motivations:
“The sexual nature of the torture and murder of James was never hidden from the court or the authorities. However they deemed it was safe to release these boys when they were just 18. I’m concerned some of the issues relating to what happened to James were forgotten in a relatively short space of time.”
It’s all there. And the Justice Secretary Jack Straw wants to keep a lid on it?
No chance Jack, even the Aussies knew you blew it.
James Bulger: Jon Venables Escapes, Child Porn And Hating Maggie Atkinson
JAMES Bulger’s killer Jon Venables will not be charged for possessing “child porn”. This is a “bombshell”. Well, so says the Sunday Mirror on its front page, as we bring your our review of James Bulger in the news:
“Venables to escape child porn trial”
But we never did get to know for sure why Jon Venables was sent back to jail.
This story was never about the facts – it was about the lack of them.
And what with this beign Mothers’ Day, Sky News focuses on James Bulger’s mother, Denise Fergus:
Bulger Mother: ‘Sack Twisted Adviser’
Jo Couzens tells readers:
James Bulger’s mother has called for the Children’s Commissioner to be sacked for “twisted and insensitive” comments about the murder of her two-year-old son.
Dr Maggie Atkinson is a woman in the spotlight by her own choosing. She’s yet another expert with an expert’s opinion. She says 10 – the age Jon Venables was when he killed Bulger – is too young to understand “bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing”. The law says otherwise. Atkinson says the age should be raised to 12. The law says no.
The Ministry of Justice says:
“We believe that children aged 10 and over can differentiate between bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing. We do not intend to raise the age of criminal responsibility.”
Oh, and this is the same Dr Atkinson who described the killing and torture of a toddler as “exceptionally unpleasant“.
That is where the story ends. Although it doesn’t because Denise Fergus, James Bulger’s mother, can be relied upon to be upset – and to offer an opinion.
Here’s Denise Fergus:
“This woman owes James and me an apology for her twisted and insensitive comments. Then she should resign or be sacked.”
This is the Star’s:
“BULGER MUM’S FURY AT CHILD TSAR”
And so it is that we have an official target for our loathing. Dr Atkinson is the official in the wrong. She so wrong that eh must be sacked. But here’s is only one opinion in a sea of nodding heads. Atkinson is no more qualified in law then Denise Fergus is. Says Mrs Fergus:
“It is a shock to people like Dr Atkinson that children can be truly evil by 10. But it is a fact and I fear there will be more of them and we need laws to be tightened up so we can deal with them.”
But is Jon Venables evil?
* James Bulger’s killer Jon Venables has spoken to his mother for the first time since he was returned to prison.The 27-year-old was taken to the jail video suite where he spoke to mum Susan – who has a new identity like her son – via a television link.
Denis Fergus knows what he looks like. Will she tell? And her viw is imporatns. The NoTW says:
Denise and ex husband Ralph would be invited to make a statement to the parole board in the event Venables is referred to them.
And he might be because:
EVIL Jon Venables will escape prosecution for child porn offences but could still spend TEN YEARS in jail without trial.
That is how long the powerful parole board could cage him for breaching the conditions of his release on licence.
The News of the World has learned that Justice Secretary Jack Straw is being pushed by senior advisors to take the “easier option” of leaving the Venables case in the hands of parole chiefs.
The alternative is a trial which could blow Venables’ cover if he has to face charges of possession of Category Four material – one of the worst levels of child porn.
So ten years. Or as the Express puts it:
JAMES Bulger killer Jon Venables will be free from jail in just 12 months if convicted of alleged child porn offences, it was revealed yesterday.
With so much expert opinion, what to think?
Euan Ferguson is here to help:
I covered the murder, the trial, the 10-year anniversary. I know nothing deep about what happened – how can any of us – but I do know he was called “James” Bulger, never “Jamie”, and I do know that the mob is wrong, and always knows nothing, and we are violently wrong, unforgivably so, to listen to them. When even Harriet Harman can talk about “the court of public opinion”, rightly skewered last week by Matthew Parris (ooh, there are also some grand old maps too in the V&A by his near-namesake, but with the one “r”) as “a disgusting phrase” – when even the highest lawmakers in the land curtsey and slaver to the mob, we are in excitingly fabulous trouble. I don’t know whether the modern hell is worse than the medieval hell. But perhaps it’s time to update Satre. Hell is other people, talking.
David Mitchell adds:
The main reason that Jon Venables’s reincarceration has been all over the papers is that people enjoy reading about it – it’s another episode in a horrific but gripping story. The parts of people’s brains that it engages are, largely, the same parts that are turned on by a harrowing but compelling movie, and not a million miles away from those that flicker into life at an episode of Midsomer Murders.
Anyhow, here’s Peter Hitchens in the Mail:
Most things that are said and written about crime and disorder in Britain are complete tripe…
He doesn’t end it there. But he might. James Bulger was killed. One of his killers is back in jail. And the law is unsure what to do with him. The law, supposed bedrock of society, is unsure what the rules are…
Jon Venables: Vomiting Satan, Evil, Nurture And An ‘Unpleasant’ Thing
The Story so far:
Jon Venables Is An Election Pawn: Labour Fears As Tories Turn Screws
Jon Venables Is A Failure Of Jack Straw’s Law
Jon Venables: Jack Straw Gets Denise Fergus To Be Quiet
Jon Venables Thumb Sucks, Cop Shows And No News
David Calvert Is The Man Who Could Never Be Everton’s Jon Venables
Jon Venables: The Rapist, The Porn And The Parents
James Bulger Case in pictures
Life’s Been Hell For Jon Venables, James Bulger’s Killer Accused Of Possessing Child Porn
John Venables ‘Sex Crime’ As Jack Straw Forced To Meet James Bulger’s Mum Denise Fergus
James Bulger And Jon Venables: The Killer Worked As A Bouncer
James Bulger And Jon Venables: The Killer Is Identified
Jon Venables’ Girlfriend, A ‘Stabbing’ And A Politically Incorrect Jack Straw
James Bulger: This IS Jon Venables
James Bulger’s Killer Jon Venables: Pictures And Sickening Detail
Jon Venables Saved By The Nanny State
James Bulger Case in pictures
David Calvert Is The Man Who Could Never Be Everton’s Jon Venables
Posted: 14th, March 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment (1)
Jon Venables: Vomiting Satan, Evil, Nurture And An ‘Unpleasant’ Thing
JAMES Bulger: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at the case of one of James Bulger’s killers Jon Venables in the news. Venables has been in the news ever since the Government issued a press release that he had been arrested and put back in jail.
Daily Mail: “BULGER KILLERS: Freeing them was wrong, says juror”
The Mail shares a few words with Alan Barry, the jury foreman in the James Bulger trial.
Mr Barry, 71, who runs a Christian charity shop, said: “I can still see the photographs of the injuries we had to look at, which were horrendous. It is still so vivid. I am surprised that it was Venables who has reoffended as he was the quieter of the two in the trial — crying into his hankie and looking nervous.”
Juror turns judge:
“The pair should have been sentenced to a lot longer in prison. I, and some of the other jurors, were surprised at what they got. Although they were only ten-year-olds at the time, I believe they knew what they were doing. A sentence like that was ludicrous. And when they were released, they should have been monitored more closely.”
How closely?
But Thompson and Venables should never have gone to jail at all.
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Posted: 13th, March 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (2)
Jon Venables And The Cooper’s Hill Cheese Race Create A Daily Mail Wet Nightmare
CHEESE gives you nightmares, like, er, Jon Venables (Really, you need to read this til the end.). The Mail seized upon the story that the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling Race has been axed. Cheese racers will not be charging down the 1:1 gradient Cooper’s Hill, Brockworth, Gloucestershire, in pursuit of a Double Gloucester.A two-hundred-year-old British tradition ruined by ‘health and safety killjoys’? It’s a Mail wet dream:
One of the UK’s oldest traditional events has been killed off this year after falling victim to health and safety concerns.
But, as usual with such stories, it’s not entirely accurate.
Yes, this year’s race at Cooper’s Hill in Gloucester has been cancelled. But:
The organisers of the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake regret to announce that the 2010 event has been cancelled.
The attendance at the event has far outgrown the location where it has traditionally been held for several hundred years: last year more than 15,000 people tried to attend (according to official estimates) which is more than three times the capacity of the site.
So the organisers cancelled it. Not ‘health and safety killjoys’ then?
And it’s nothing to do with the actual cheese-roll race itself, which the Mail seems to imply.
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Posted: 13th, March 2010 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)
Jon Venables Is An Election Pawn: Labour Fears As Tories Turn Screws
JAMES Bulger: The Jon Venables conundrum is reaching to the globe’s far corners. In Australia the end result is seen as Venables being used as a pawn in the UK’s election game.
This afternoon’s (tomorrow morning already on Manley Beach) Saturday issue of the Sydney Morning Herald takes a long look at the re-call to jail of James Bugler’s joint killer and comes to the conclusions probably already reached by many here in Anorak.
The paper’s Paolo Totaro reviews the original crime, the return to jail of 27-year-old Venables and says Britain is confronting a new chapter as the justice system grapples with “a child murderer who has grown up and, despite a new identity, freedom and adulthood, is clearly not psychologically equipped to live a normal life.”
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Jon Venables Is A Failure Of Jack Straw’s Law
ON the comments pages, Jon Venables, one of James Bulger’s two killers, is sparking debate.
Reader Georgina writes:
I think we can safely conclude that the heat is not going to die down under the current arrangements. People have been hunting and fighting this cause for over 17 years now, they and their resolve have matured, they will just get better at it and their will be no peace for anyone.
Many people would be confronted by giving up the hunt now, it offends our personal integrity I think. I feel it takes a lot of humility and self esteem for some to admit defeat, especially the lawmakers. They set Jon Venables, his family, the community, doctors, police, prison officers, anyone who sounds like Jon, looks like Jon etc, up for hell on earth – so we live in fear, anguish and anger.
What has posttraumatic stress disorder in relation to the management of Venables and Thompson cost so far – and I don’t mean just financially?
Why does Jon Venables live in fear? Lynching probably – that they won’t just kill him, they will do to him what he did to James. I fear it will be an eye for an eye. What an horrific outcome. What dread this conjures up. How many people will be goaled for the bludgeoning of Jon Venables?
How long will the investigation take? How many thousands of people do they intend to interview – the planners, the researcher’s the vigilante’s, the family, public servants and so that even when he is dead? The issue remains festering into history.
Jon and Robert Venables knew what they were doing. We are informed by research that many children understand at various levels the finality of death by the age of 5.
It was not a “clean merciful murder”. The very nature of the killing tells us that.
Perhaps that is where the real damage and hurt has become irreconcilable in the eyes of the people.
Many people I think, never reconcile with the death of a baby/child. It is in our nature to grieve sometimes forever.
Whether we call them “evil”, “mentally ill” or “psychopathic” – whatever “box” we try to put them in – all this is in vain under these current circumstances…
My greatest fear is for the cases of mistaken identity – and the endless anguish, anger, frustration, despair and misery the lawmakers have caused in their futile efforts to try and lessen the turmoil. Instead they have fuelled it and continue to do so. I don’t believe that the people will stop. The momentum is too huge now. What will it take to quieten the hearts of the people ?
Reader AGW responds
There are those who feel justice, retribution and rehabilitation is the sole preserve of the few given salaries so high as to be expected to be perfect in thought, word, deed and above all taints or corruption.
It demonstrates a blind faith in the political and legal system to the point of exclusion of all other cohesive argument, Legitimate questions are dismissed as the baying of a mob which illustrates my original point. Where justice is not seen to be done there is no justice.
It becomes an academic interpretation of standards set by an elite. I am not sure whether that should be classed as an oligarchy or a judicial dictatorship.
I have not, and would not, suggest that the current situation re Jon Venables’ recall from licence is anything other than difficult. The contention that these difficulties are the fault of the media is clearly an arrant, even arrogant, nonsense and an attempt to coerce others into believing all judgements in this case are erudite and legally and morally correct ones.
I can not argue any point on those judgements since I am not qualified to do so. I happen to believe the anonymity granted to individuals as part of their rehabilitation programmes has now been proved to have been dangerous and an utter failure.
It has damaged the protected ones, it has damaged relatives of victims and it is clearly still damaging third parties. It has also created something I have not seen before. The general public has for years been losing faith in bankers, estate agents and politicians but suddenly there is a realisation that the Law is not all it has been cracked up to be.
It is contended this is the fault of the mob. It is not. It is the inevitable consequence of a judicial decision process and if the academic lawyers among us would care to examine the progression of decisions as far back as, say, the Cleveland Child Abuse Inquiry, there may be a few clues to the process which has led to today’s position.
I will make one final point. If some genuinely believe the freedoms they now enjoy today are there solely because of the judicial and legislative process they are to be pitied. The great unwashed also provided the basis for all legal systems via Common Law. I can’t remember when any major section of Common Law was tampered with, however when the politicians and judges get stuck in, we get Statutory and Case Law and that’s where failures start as adjustments are made to fit the will of the elite.
Generally, it’s then the media stirs its lazy backside and bleats until someone is forced to listen. A small contribution but helps guarantee freedom.
A child is killed. And the powers that be don’t know what to do…
The Story so far:
Jon Venables: Jack Straw Gets Denise Fergus To Be Quiet
Jon Venables Thumb Sucks, Cop Shows And No News
David Calvert Is The Man Who Could Never Be Everton’s Jon Venables
Jon Venables: The Rapist, The Porn And The Parents
James Bulger Case in pictures
Life’s Been Hell For Jon Venables, James Bulger’s Killer Accused Of Possessing Child Porn
John Venables ‘Sex Crime’ As Jack Straw Forced To Meet James Bulger’s Mum Denise Fergus
James Bulger And Jon Venables: The Killer Worked As A Bouncer
James Bulger And Jon Venables: The Killer Is Identified
Jon Venables’ Girlfriend, A ‘Stabbing’ And A Politically Incorrect Jack Straw
James Bulger: This IS Jon Venables
James Bulger’s Killer Jon Venables: Pictures And Sickening Detail
Jon Venables Saved By The Nanny State
James Bulger Case in pictures
David Calvert Is The Man Who Could Never Be Everton’s Jon Venables
Jon Venables: Jack Straw Gets Denise Fergus To Be Quiet
THE Jon Venables story: Jack Straw met James Bulger’s mum Denise Fergus yesterday.
They met at Blackburn Town Hall in the heart of the Justice Secretary’s constituency and Straw will have told the 43-year-old mother of the murdered two-year-old a little of what he knows.
How much we may never know because Jack. probably/possibly made a point about preserving the Rule of Law.
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Posted: 12th, March 2010 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Jon Venables Thumb Sucks, Cop Shows And No News
“THE Real Jon Venables” is made to stand up in today’s Daily Star as it screams its lone Bulger-linked banner front page saying it is revealing all, writes AGW.
It is not: the story is a mish-mash rehash of much which has already been said the intro and opening paragraphs are:
“JAMES Bulger’s killer Jon Venables is a big fan of tough-talking telly cop shows, the Daily Star can reveal.
The killer of little James is among thousands of fans who publicly praise hardman cops.
They love the way the TV policemen bring the most notorious crooks to justice.”
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Posted: 11th, March 2010 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
David Calvert Is The Man Who Could Never Be Everton’s Jon Venables
LACK of hard news makes strange bedfellows. The Sun and Daily Mail are today both among those who carry the tale of the 27-year-old man who is not, and will never be, murderer Jon Venables, writes AGW.
The Sun’s Ben Ashford finds David Calvert, a Liverpool-born father of four who may live up the road in Fleetwood and over 2,000 angry others think he looks like what joint child killer Jon Venables may look like.
David and his partner Debbie have had to move five times because of mistaken identity headaches.
David Calvert…the, alleged, may-be-
Jon Venables-look-a-like
Despite a Facebook page, now taken down, David can not be the man now in prison awaiting a decision by a Parole Board on the revoking of his life-licence.
Ben says David is now in hiding because of fears over his mistaken identity…just as Jon Venables was alleged to have been …or not. Ben also tells us David has been in prison but not for violence, in David’s case it was fraud.
Such is the tabloid appetite to get the facts and nothing but the facts.
The Daily Mail sees Baroness Butler-Sloss’s vigilantes and Mail-man Stephen Wright again sees a father of four living in fear with his partner and family because over 2,000 are hunting him and email chain letters have branded him as two-year-old James Bulger’s killer. The Mail writer adds this is not a new witch-hunt and David Calvert has been mistaken for Jon Venables for over five years and has moved several times.
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Posted: 10th, March 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (25)
‘Gay’ Jon Venables Linked To Baby P’s Killers On Facebook
JON Venables and James Bulger: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at Jon Venables in the news: The gay, Peter Achapman, Facebook killers, David Calvert and what is justice?
Jon Venables is only on one front page:
Daily Star (front page): “Venables outed on Facebook”
He’s gay? Robert Thompson is gay and lives with a man. Well, so say reports.
Can Jon Venables now be linked to Peter Chapman, the man who met Ashleigh Hall on Facebook and went on to rape and kill her?
Daily Mail (front page): “Facebook under Fire”
But surely Facebook has led to the recapture of Jon Venables? Back in the Star, then, where we learn:
A MAN has spoken of his terror after he was falsely accused of being James Bulger’s killer Jon Venables. Innocent dad David Calvert has been the victim of a sick web scam.
So, Jon Venables was not outed on Facebook. The Daily Star’s front-page headline is wrong, undone by the opening lines to its own story. Says David Calvert, who moved to Fleetwood, Lancs, in 2003, having done jail time for fraud:
“People have been turning up at my neighbours’ houses with pictures of the killers printed off the internet and saying one of them is me. Now I hear that threats are being made and I’m worried that someone will come for me or my girlfriend, or hurt my kids.
“I’m too scared to go out of the house now. I have these people saying they will get me out ‘no matter what’ and I’m terrified at what they might do.”
Maybe these idiots should read Anorak because – and this might come as a shock – we know where Jon Venables is. He’s in jail.
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Posted: 10th, March 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (2)
Jon Venables Saved By The Nanny State
IT has taken Jon Venables, one of James Bulger’s killers, almost 18 years but he has finally brought the British judicial system to its knees, writes AGW.
Top politicians and judicial Law Lords seem to dither while faced with an increasing media storm.
It has been the equivalent of watching a nanny give a pyromaniac child a big box of matches. The situation gets worse.
Venables was 10-years-old when he and Robert Thompson, also 10, killed two-year-old James Bulger in a viciously cruel attack. The murder horrified the UK and the two and a half week trial at Preston Crown Court resulted in the the conviction of two children for murder. Thompson and Venables were the youngest individuals to be convicted of murder in the UK.
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Posted: 9th, March 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (12)
Jon Venables: The Rapist, The Porn And The Parents
JON Venables: Anorak’s at-a-glance round up of new of James Bulger’s killer Jon Venables, with a rapist, child porn and a fight…
The Sun (front page): “On a scale of 1 to 5, Venables’ child porn rated 4”
It is a “Hoard of horror”.
But it’s only alleged. We don’t know what Venables did or did not do to end up back in jail. But still that allegation of porn is good for headlines, and tautology:
“Bulger killer Jon Venables accused over hoard of ‘vile’ child pornography“
Daily Mail (front page): “BULGER KILLER TO FACE PORN CHARGE”
The Mirror (front page): “Strip James’ killer of his secret identity”
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Posted: 8th, March 2010 | In: Reviews | Comments (4)
Life’s Been Hell For Jon Venables, James Bulger’s Killer Accused Of Possessing Child Porn
THE talk is of Jon Venables, the recalled on licence joint killer of James Bulger,, being jailed for chidl porn: As the Sunday Mirror tells readers:
“Jon Venables sent back to prison over child porn offence”
But there is more. Jon Venables…
Has:
– suffered so much living a lie under his false identity he regularly told others who he was while seeming to be blitzed on alcohol and drugs says the Observer:
He…“had descended into a ‘persistent state of self-disclosure’ in which he felt compelled to tell others his real identity in the months before his return to prison…”
But:
– a stronger view from the Sunday Express was the headline: ‘
“CONFESSION OBSESSION OF JAMES BULGER’S MURDERER”
In the Express version:
“Experts fear Venables has a death wish and are uncertain about how to treat him or whether to give him another new identity because he has struggled so severely to come to terms with his new life.
“The pressure of having to pass himself off as a different person with a different background and family history has triggered a serious psychological collapse which has led to him becoming violent.
“A senior source close to the case said: “He has gone into self-destruct mode. We are talking about an individual who is mentally scarred and has had to live a lie for nine years.”
While:
– Venables WILL be charged with a serious sex crime soon, the News of the World can reveal. It also says Venables has now under sedation in an isolation wing.
And:
– over at the Mail on Sunday Suzanne Moore gives us the benefit of her youngest child’s wisdom and plucks the reader heartstrings under the headline:’Jon Venables is serving life’
“I was attempting to explain the murder of James Bulger by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables to my youngest child as she had seen the news. ‘That’s terrible,’ she said. ‘Those boys should be in prison for ever.’
“When I told her they were only ten, a year older than her, when they committed this crime, she responded: ‘But it’s wrong to put children in prison.’
“Her nine-year-old view of the world is contradictory, but no more contradictory than that of many adults. We struggle between reason and emotion.”
Well yes Suzanne we do. Venable’s plight and Robert Thompson’s action in yesterday asking for 24-hour police protection and the unfortunate killing of James Bulger did make me ponder the world, life, and everything.
At this distance and a lifetime away from it, it is a struggle to pierce the memory haze to see the ten-year-old. Certainly there is no recollection of a need to kill or father a baby.
There was a cruel, harsh and difficult childhood and there was a severe trauma induced by my parents.
It is almost too distressing to repeat but life was truly difficult and the children of the streets were all, right down to a snotty nosed four-year-old, forced to walk the snow-covered pathways in gangs. At an ungodly hour each grey day they trudged to a grinding, unremitting place of work filled with many tough taskmasters. It was a charnel house. you could sense the bones of the ones who had gone before, a terrible stone building…school.
Broke free
One Saturday I broke free and with a older set of troubled youth went to Woolworths. It was the exciting time; the initiation into the gang. I performed my tasks well and nicked a shiny penknife and a pack of playing cards. I was relieved of both as soon as we hit the damp pavements on the way out.
The trauma was almost immediate and later the same day. I had been spotted, not by a eagle-eyed assistant but the rat-fink older GIRL who lived with her family two doors away. She snitched to her mother who gleefully told mine.
Then came the long forced march through the bitterly cold winter, a whole three miles to Woolies as my relentlessly vicious old dad forced me to apologise to the manager, staff and customers of a bemused and hugely entertained Saturday shopping throng.
The experience still causes blushing. Drugs were half an aspirin and a real-out-of-mind trip was the first PG Wodehouse and the excursion daydream- trip to Blandings Castle.
It was an unlucky childhood but, curiously, I have no difficulty in telling people who I am or right from wrong.
Venables has been and is in a Hell not entirely of his own making but he made a single-handed huge contribution to his version of Purgatory.
The Story so far:
John Venables ‘Sex Crime’ As Jack Straw Forced To Meet James Bulger’s Mum Denise Fergus
James Bulger And Jon Venables: The Killer Worked As A Bouncer
James Bulger And Jon Venables: The Killer Is Identified
Jon Venables’ Girlfriend, A ‘Stabbing’ And A Politically Incorrect Jack Straw
James Bulger: This IS Jon Venables
James Bulger’s Killer Jon Venables: Pictures And Sickening Detail
Posted: 7th, March 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (4)
John Venables ‘Sex Crime’ As Jack Straw Forced To Meet James Bulger’s Mum Denise Fergus
The UK’s highest legal Cabinet member is being forced into a meeting most would dearly love to avoid. He has to try and explain to a still grieving mum why her child’s killer deserves to stay anonymous and hidden within a protection programme. That State-funded protection is to stay in place after the murderer has been accused of breaching his life licence conditions.
STRAW, who represents the the Lancashire town of Blackburn, has agreed to meet Denise Fergus following the arrest last week of one of the toddler’s killers, Jon Venables, it was revealed early today.
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Posted: 6th, March 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (9)
James Bulger And Jon Venables: The Killer Is Identified
JAMES Bulger and Jon Venables: THE twists and turns of the Strange Case of Jon Venables – or whoever he is now – got a little darker and dirtier yesterday when the Prime Minister backed the system which is keeping the joint murderer of a two-year-old hidden from the public, writes AGW.
Venables is said to be terrified and sticking to his cell in the prison we can’t name for fear of identifying him. He was booked in under his false identity and prison officers were not told who they were dealing with. According to the tabloids today, prisoners already know who he is and the beard Venables has been growing did not hide him..
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Posted: 5th, March 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (21)
