Fury as James Bulger killer Jon Venables gets two years for child porn

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12 April 2012

The mother of James Bulger reacted with anger today as one of his murderers was jailed for two years on child pornography charges.

Denise Fergus was at the Old Bailey to see Jon Venables, 27, plead guilty by video link to three counts of using indecent photographs and film clips of children in sexual activity.

But after hearing the sentence passed by Mr Justice Bean, furious Ms Fergus said outside court: "Justice has not been done. Two years is simply not enough to meet the gravity of what this person did."

She also demanded an investigation into the probation service, which has supervised the killer since his release from prison in 2001. Venables admitted downloading 57 pornographic pictures and distributing more than 40 indecent images, all of children. Some involved children of two — the same age as James when he was killed.

The third charge was the distribution of 42 indecent photos of children to Leslie Blanchard, convicted of a child porn charge last October.

The court heard that Venables posed on the internet as a 35-year-old woman called Dawn and offered "her" fictitious eight-year-old daughter to Blanchard. They both agreed a price for the paedophile to abuse her for several hours but Venables later backed down.

In court it was revealed that he had been arrested twice in 2008 before his child pornography was discovered. He was held following a drunken brawl in the street on suspicion of affray but the charge was dropped after he claimed he had been acting in self-defence.

Three months later he was arrested after being found with a small amount of cocaine. He received only a police caution. Ms Fergus, 42, said today she was "surprised and concerned" that Venables was not recalled under the terms of his parole licence after the crimes came to light in 2008.

Speaking through her spokesman Chris Johnson, she called on Justice Secretary Ken Clarke to launch an inquiry. "The former justice secretary Jack Straw promised a case review would be held after these proceedings," she said. "We want Mr Clarke to instigate a full investigation into the conduct of the Probation Service in this case."

Her demand came as Venables issued an extraordinary apology for killing the toddler, saying he thought about him "every day".

He and his friend Robert Thompson were aged 10 when they abducted James from a shopping centre in Liverpool and murdered him on a railway line in February 1993.

Their victim's battered body was found by children on a freight railway line 200 yards from a police station and more than two miles from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle.

Venables said through his solicitor John Gibson that he was filled with "remorse and shame" and still "lived in fear" of being recognised in a revenge attack for the killing.

Speaking about the death of James, Mr Gibson said his client has accepted responsibility and the consequences will be with him for life.

The solicitor added: "Every day since what took place in 1993 he has thought about how different life might have been for all those affected, who he appreciates have also had their own reasons for reflection."

Mr Justice Bean said as he passed sentence it would be wrong to increase Venables's time in prison because he was one of the two people responsible for the "horrific" murder of James.

But he said that as Venables was still on licence for the crime, he would not automatically be released on serving half his sentence. That would be up to the parole board to decide.

The judge said: "Accessing child pornography on a computer is not a victimless crime, since people who do it encourage the exploitation of the children filmed or photographed."

The crimes were discovered in February this year, when the killer feared his identity had been discovered.

He called his probation officer, who told him to pack his things, informed the police and arrived at his flat intending to move him to a safe address. When he arrived Venables was trying to delete images from his computer.

The machine was taken to a police station where it was examined and the indecent images were found — leading to Venables being arrested and taken back into custody.

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