BREAKING: James Bulger's killer Jon Venables granted parole hearing
20.09.2023 - 12:37
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Child killer Jon Venables has been granted a parole hearing, the Parole Board has confirmed. Venables, who killed James Bulger alongside Robert Thompson in Feburary 1993, has been granted a hearing later this year.
The hearing will take place on November 14 and 15, it is understood. Venables was 10 years old when he and Thompson killed two-year-old James.
The toddler had been abducted from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, before being tortured and murdered. After serving eight years, Venables and Thompson were released in 2001, but Venables has since reoffended four times and returned to prison twice.
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A Parole Board spokesperson told PA: “An oral hearing has been listed for the parole review of Jon Venables and is scheduled to take place in November 2023. Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.
A panel will carefully examine a huge range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as explore the harm done and impact the crime has had on the victims. Members read and digest hundreds of pages of evidence and reports in the lead up to an oral hearing.
"Evidence from witnesses including probation officers, psychiatrists and psychologists, officials supervising the offender in prison as well as victim personal statements are then given at the hearing. The prisoner and witnesses are then questioned at length during