One of the killers of toddler James Bulger is back behind bars after breaching the conditions of his release from prison.

Jon Venables, 27, who with Robert Thompson abducted and murdered James in February 1993, was released from custody in 2001, but he has been recalled following the breach, a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said.

She added: "We can confirm that Jon Venables has been recalled to custody following a breach of licence conditions.

"Offenders on licence are subject to strict conditions; if they breach those conditions they are subject to immediate recall.

"There is a worldwide injunction in place that prohibits any reporting including reporting on the internet, that could identify him or his location."

Details of the nature of the breach were not released.

Venables and Thompson were aged 10 when they embarked on a crime that stunned the world.

On February 13, 1993, they abducted James from a shopping centre and killed him on a railway line.

The toddler's battered body was found by children playing on a freight railway line 200 yards from Walton Lane police station, Liverpool, and more than two miles from the Strand shopping centre.

Days later Venables and Thompson were arrested in connection with the murder of James, and later charged. They were the youngest to be charged with murder in the 20th century.

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Whatever it is, I bet it uses the word 'tot', a word that you never see anywhere else but in shit newspapers talking about kids that are dead or molested. 'Tragic tot'

Current whispers are that Jon Venables recall to prison may be related to drugs

Well, I hope he gets the boiling-kettle-with-sugar-in-it treatment, the evil fucking bastard.

Would you have wished the same treatment on him when he first committed the crime as a ten-year-old?

No. But I would have liked him to live in fear of the fact that it might happen as a ten-year-old. And I would have liked him to be unshadowed by the cloak of anonymity when he was released from prison.

ONE of the killers of toddler James Bulger was back in prison last night after breaching the conditions of his release.

Jon Venables, now 27, broke strict rules which include a ban on him contacting his fellow murderer Robert Thompson or the Bulger family.


Venables and Thompson - given new identities when freed in 2001 - killed two-year-old James on Merseyside in 1993.


The mother of murdered James said last night that Venables' arrest was "justice" for her son.



Murdered ... James Bulger, twoDenise Fergus spoke out on her Twitter site: "Would like to let everyone know jon venables is where he belongs tonight behind bars this is my sons justice."

Her husband Stuart Fergus added that he was "thinking when will this all end for my wife!!!"

News of Venables' return to prison came two weeks before James would have celebrated his 19th birthday.

Venables and his killer pal Thompson were handed new identities when they were freed in 2001 - along with a list of conditions, banning them from contacting each other or the Bulger family.



CCTV film ... James is led awayVenables was also ordered not to return to Merseyside - where he and Thompson committed their terrible crime when they were ten - without the written consent of his probation officer.

A spokesman for Denise, 42, said: "She has always said she did not believe it was safe to parole Venables and Thompson at the age of 18 before they had ever spent a day in an adult prison.

"She believes this breach of parole shows she was right.



Worry ... mum Denise"The Probation Service has promised to keep Denise informed about progress in the case and has assured her she was not in danger at any time.

"But she believes she and the public have a right to know what Venables has done and what is to be done with him now he is an adult offender."

Venables was locked up again after being subject to "immediate recall". He will remain behind bars INDEFINITELY until the Parole Board decides if and when he can be re-released.

In theory, he could be kept inside for the rest of his life.

It was not clear if he had re-offended or broken other terms of his parole.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said last night: "We can confirm Jon Venables has been recalled to custody following a breach of licence conditions.

"Offenders on licence are subject to strict conditions. If they breach those conditions they are subject to immediate recall."



Hunt ... cops gather evidence where body was found in 1993Criminal law expert Michael Wolkind QC said there was a "significant chance" the breach had been serious after all the trouble taken by the authorities to arrange Venables' new life.

The torture and murder of James after he was snatched from a Bootle shopping mall shocked the world.

The pals threw modelling paint in the tot's face, kicked him and beat him with bricks, stones and a 22lb iron bar. Then they stuffed batteries in his mouth.

James' mutilated body was found on a railway line in nearby Walton two days later. His injuries were so severe medics were unable to determine how he died.



Freed ... Robert Thompson
Venables and Thompson - the youngest children to be convicted of murder in English history - were freed amid controversy over how long they should have served.

And in an unprecedented move, they were granted anonymity for the rest of their days.


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Even the jail where Venables is being held cannot be disclosed because of a legal injunction.

He is there under his assumed name, but other lags may soon cotton on to his true identity.

It is not even possible to tell how Venables has changed from the last picture of him when he was a boy.

He is entitled to launch an appeal in a bid to regain his freedom.

Laurence Lee, his solicitor at the time of the 1993 murder, said last night he was "shocked" by the dramatic development.

To all you do gooders, that are saying he should not be harmed, and they where only 10

I do hope you never ever have kids. These two should have rotted for natural life for what they did. Being 10 is no defence. With any luck the father will find out where they are and do what he said on tv.

If the man gets found out and fucked up, so what maybe just maybe he might feel a tiny bit of the terror that baby did when they killed him on the railway tracks by chucking rocks at his head while he screamed for his mummy.

I like how The Sun keeps pointing out that his licence condition included not contacting the other dude involved in the murder or the Bulger family, when theres no suggestion that he tried to do that at all.

I think it's The Sun themselves that are making that suggestion, Soap.

To all you do gooders, that are saying he should not be harmed, and they where only 10

I do hope you never ever have kids. These two should have rotted for natural life for what they did. Being 10 is no defence. With any luck the father will find out where they are and do what he said on tv.

If the man gets found out and fucked up, so what maybe just maybe he might feel a tiny bit of the terror that baby did when they killed him on the railway tracks by chucking rocks at his head while he screamed for his mummy.

How on earth people can feel sorry for them is madness.

Do you know any 10 year olds? They were fucking kids for crying out loud.

Speaking of predictable headlines, when the John Terry story was on the front page of The Sun and I bet my manager that the three paragraphs under his picture would contain the words "love rat" and "romped".

I won the bet.

The Sun is also the only place you will ever see the word "Lag".

Anyway, on-topic... Yoghurt wins.

Do you know any 10 year olds? They were fucking kids for crying out loud. They shouldn't have been in prison, we should have locked up the bastards who bred them and allowed them to turn out as they did at 10 years old. It's about time we started making an example of the people who plop kids out of their fannies for the fun of it and then leave them to their own devices.


I was brought up on a council estate by a single mother. She did a bloody good job with me and my brothers. A lot of the kids on the estate where in a similar situation but with parents who didn't give a toss. A lot of them ended up getting involved in thieving and drugs. That's not guaranteed to happen but nor is it completely coincidental.

They even stuck his dead body on the railway track to try and make it look like he was killed by a train. That is evil no if buts or maybe.

How the fuck does a 10 year old get a mind like that? What were they allowed to see or read that let them develop that level of "evil"? Blaming a parent is "stupid"? You're having a laugh. If you know lots of 10 year olds, you should know how simple their life is and how honest their minds are.

I totally agree with you that theiving and drugs is a long way from killing a baby. So that just shows how fucking diabolical the upbringing of those children was.

I know/knew 10 year olds who were fully aware of the world and were still evil little fuckwits. Oh sure its because of how they were brought up (usually, though I have known people brought up well turn out to be dicks), but it doesnt stop them being evil.

That said, I agree that it would be more important to try to rehabilitate them from the shitty upbringing, at least give them the chance to change the direction they are taking. I feel the same about the 2 kids here in doncaster, what they did was evil, but they didnt have much of a chance with how their mum and dad treat them.

Her husband Stuart Fergus added that he was "thinking when will this all end for my wife!!!"

He and Thompson should have been hung after being found guilty.

When they were fucking 10 years old?? Are you really Gary Bushell?

Those who are saying that Venables is back where he belongs are stupid.

He and Thompson should have been hung after being found guilty.

It's a difficult issue; of course the parents in both cases are contemptible cunts who should be strung up, but IMO some people, kids or not, are just wired wrong - the capability to do something as evil as that has to be there in the first place, because there are plenty of people who've had shitty upbringings and yet don't murder or torture small children.

For that reason, there has to be an element of punishment as well as rehabilitation in these sentences - like it or not, they are culpable for their actions and need to know that they'll have consequences. Allowing both of those men to live their entire adult lives as free men is no punishment at all, in my opinion. The fact that Venables has apparently gone on to re-offend seems to show that he's not yet been effectively taught that his actions will have consequences.

Hold on a fucking minute here.

These were children. Ten year old children. They weren't even old enough for secondary school. No child of ten has a full understanding of what he or she is doing, because they're so easily impressed. There are ten year old children who still believe in Santa Claus. Why should you expect ten year olds to have any more sophisticated a grasp of reality in other areas?

Never mind though, let's HANG THEM because the SUN says to.

I still fail to see what part of the planned murder you dont see?

No-one misunderstands the circumstances. No-one has tried to justify the crime one bit. It's fucking horrendous, it was then and it is now. I had to look away from the news on TV last night because that CCTV footage still haunts me.

The fact still remains that they were children. As Moj points out, 10 year olds believe in Santa Clause so it's not difficult to see how such a shallow mind could be corrupted enough to perform such a hideous crime. My question is still "How the hell were they allowed to develop into such animals?". I haven't read one single good response to that yet.

Heard on the radio this morning that there was a similar crime in Norway not long after. A 5 year old girl was battered to death by three boys even younger than these two and they tried to bury the body in the Snow. They were back at school within the month. I wonder where they are now?

Shady area. One thing is clear justice was not carried out in the 8 years they spent playing games all day. As adults they should atleast be forced to explain the actions they carried out and live with the names they where born with not least so people can know whos living next to them, dating their daughter, or worse still baby sitting the kids.

Interesting point brought up by Martin Brunt.

About 1,000 people go to prison in a week - how hard would it be to find any Scousers in their late twenties with a shit attitude? His anonymity's at serious risk now.

Surely the only difference bewteen waiting til' they're 20 & hanging them & hanging them when they're 10 years old is that it's a little easier for the masses to stomach? If you believe that at aged 10 there should be a degree of diminished responsibility, that the parents should be held partially accountable (both boys were obviously troubled, should've been school at the time etc etc) then nothing changes in the decade between the offence & the execution. You're still executing a 10 year old but giving him a long wait?



The problem with this is that the British public can't be trusted with such information. We've seen paediatrician's cars get torched with a little help from the News of the World. Also, who knows tha they spent 8 years playing games all day? Bit of a tabloid assumption.

As Rick pointed out, no-one's looked at the root-cause, the upbringing & most importantly IMO the fucking parents. Why is this? Because no-one wants to think that they're kids could turn out the same way. There's plenty of scumbag parents in this country who don't give two shits about their kids, don't care if they attend school or not & would probably fit the parenting profile of these two children. These people are also a good chunk of the tabloids readership, hence why when something horrific like this, Columbine or any serious crime innvolving kids happens a scapegoat must be found quickly. Childs Play 3, Marilyn Manson records etc. People need something to point a finger at instead of actually looking at the real causes ,which might bring up a much more unpopular answer.