LONDON – One of two men convicted as children of killing two-year old James Bulger 17 years ago was jailed for two years yesterday after he admitted charges of downloading and distributing indecent images of children.
Jon Venables, now aged 27, appearing by video link from prison, pleaded guilty to three charges at London’s Old Bailey.
After the sentence was passed, in a statement to the media by his solicitor, Venables said he had thought about Bulger’s death “every day” since 1993 and has accepted responsibility for it.
But Bulger’s mother Denise Fergus, who was present in court on Friday, said in a statement that justice had not been done.
“These were very serious offences and two years is simply not enough to meet the gravity of what this person did,” Chris Johnson, her spokesman, told reporters.
The first offence involved downloading 57 pornographic pictures of children. The second and third related to distributing indecent photographs.
The images were found on Venables’s computer after he alerted his probation officer when he feared his new identity was in danger of being revealed. Venables confessed to police he was aroused by images of children being abused, the court heard.
He knew it was “breaking the last taboo” and remained disgusted at his actions.
Prosecutor Louis Mably said Venables admitted trying to format the hard drive on his laptop and then attempting to remove it to hide its contents.
The judge, Mr Justice Bean, told the court he could only sentence Venables for the child pornography charges.
However, Venables will likely remain in prison for longer than two years because he had been released on a life licence when he committed the latest crimes.
After two years, he will have to convince a parole board that it is safe to release him into the community.
Venables and his friend Robert Thompson killed James Bulger in 1993 when they were 10 years old. They abducted him from a shopping centre in Liverpool before torturing and killing him.
The murder shocked Britain and was widely reported around the world. A security camera picture showing the killers leading the toddler away from the Bootle shopping centre became a haunting image of the case.
Venables and Thompson were given life sentences but were released on licence in 2001 after being given new identities.
In March this year, Venables was recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions.
For nearly four months, former justice secretary Jack Straw refused to say why Venables had been recalled, other than that it was a “serious offence”.
A judge lifted reporting restrictions on the media last month, allowing them to detail Venables’s charges.
The judge ruled that Venables’s identity should remain secret after his conviction. But he decided the fact that he was living in Cheshire at the time of the offences could be reported. – (PA)