JON VENABLES FACES FRESH PAROLE BID AS JAMES BULGER’S FAMILY PUSHES FOR PUBLIC HEARING

Jon Venables is facing another parole hearing more than three decades after the murder of two-year-old James Bulger — as James’s mother Denise Fergus leads a renewed fight for greater transparency in the process.

Venables, who was 10 when he and Robert Thompson abducted and murdered James in Merseyside in 1993, is being considered for release by the Parole Board.

But a separate legal battle is now unfolding over whether the parole hearing should be opened to the public.

The Parole Board confirmed in August that it had received an application from Denise and her husband, Stuart Fergus, asking for Venables’ hearing to be held in public. A separate application was also submitted by lawyers representing James’s father, Ralph Bulger, and uncle, Jimmy Bulger.

A FIGHT FOR TRANSPARENCY

The family’s applications argue that the case is exceptional because of the original child murder, Venables’ later offending, repeated recalls to custody and the complex issues surrounding his anonymity and risk management.

According to the Parole Board’s published summary, Denise and Stuart argue that a public hearing could help the public understand how parole decisions are made and how risk is assessed.

They also say greater transparency could help counter misinformation surrounding the case and allow victims’ families to better understand the decision-making process.

The separate application made on behalf of Ralph and Jimmy Bulger similarly argues that a public hearing would allow greater scrutiny of evidence, professional opinions, risk assessments and release arrangements.

The applications do not, however, mean that the hearing has already been approved for public access.

The Parole Board says the normal position is for parole hearings to remain private, although public hearings can be permitted where the Chair considers that it is in the interests of justice.

VENABLES’ LATEST BID FOR FREEDOM

Venables has been considered for release before.

He was released on licence in 2001 after serving his youth sentence, but was recalled to prison in 2010 after indecent images of children were found on his computer.

He was released again in 2013 and was recalled for a second time in 2017 following another offence involving indecent images of children.

The Parole Board rejected his previous application in 2023, with the panel finding that he continued to pose a risk to children.

In January 2026, ITV reported that Venables had been granted another full parole hearing. The exact hearing date was not initially confirmed publicly.

THE CASE THAT SHOCKED BRITAIN

James Bulger was abducted from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, on February 12, 1993.

CCTV footage captured the two 10-year-old boys leading the toddler away.

James was later found dead after being taken to railway tracks near Walton.

Venables and Thompson were convicted of murder in 1993 and became two of Britain’s youngest convicted killers.

Both were given lifelong anonymity after their release because they had been children when the crime was committed.

That anonymity remains a central and highly sensitive part of the case.

DENISE FERGUS FACES ANOTHER PAROLE PROCESS

For Denise Fergus, the latest parole proceedings represent another painful chapter in the decades-long aftermath of her son’s death.

Her spokesperson previously said that Denise had been forced to confront a process that repeatedly reopens the trauma surrounding James’s murder.

The Parole Board confirmed that Denise’s application to observe the hearing had been granted. James’s father has also sought greater access to the proceedings.

The family’s latest push is therefore focused not simply on whether Venables could eventually be released, but on how much of the decision-making process can be seen by the public and by those directly affected by James’s murder.

WILL THE HEARING BE PUBLIC?

That question remains unresolved.

The Parole Board’s official collection currently lists the Venables public-hearing application under pending applications.

Representations were invited from interested parties before the September deadline, after which the Chair of the Parole Board will decide whether the hearing can be made public.

Even if the application is granted, anonymity protections and other safeguards could remain in place. The family’s application itself acknowledges that sensitive material could be dealt with privately while allowing parts of the proceedings to be observed publicly.

For now, the central questions remain unresolved: whether Venables will ultimately be released, and whether the public will be allowed to see the parole process unfold.

What is clear is that more than 30 years after James Bulger’s murder, the case continues to place two competing concerns at the centre of the debate — the protection and anonymity of an offender who was a child at the time of the crime, and the demand from James’s family for greater transparency over decisions affecting his future.