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Bulger killer’s identity revealed in prison
Prison guards apparently twigged because of the special attention Jon Venables has received
It was claimed today that Jon Venables, the murderer of James Bulger, has had his new identity revealed after being returned to prison for breaching the terms of his release.
The Sun quotes anonymous sources in the unnamed prison where Venables is being held as saying: "The level of protection he has is incredible. It's like he is some kind of celebrity. He is being held under his new name, which has been kept from all but the most senior prison personnel."
Venables was released in 2001 after serving eight years for his part in the murder of two-year-old Bulger, which he carried out with Robert Thompson. Both were given new identities as a precaution against just the kind of tabloid outrage that has been growing in recent days as the Sun campaigns for the Ministry of Justice to reveal why Venables was returned to prison.
The Daily Mirror claimed to have answered that question yesterday when it revealed Venables – or the man who had that name – had been returned to custody after assaulting a work colleague.
Today, the Sun claimed Venables, who is "pale-skinned, thin" and has grown a beard, is under 24-hour protection in his cell by guards who are changed every half hour.
His file has been heavily edited with his first name, date of birth and photograph removed. The governor told guards the prisoner was high-risk and refused to deny he was Venables. The precautions have only added to fellow inmates' and prison guards' suspicions that the new addition is Bulger's killer.
The Ministry of Justice is apparently resigned to having to provide yet another new identity to Venables when he is released again – a measure that will cost the taxpayer, according to the Daily Mail, £250,000. ·
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Well spoken sidney sands, you speak out for the majority. Let the do-gooders who always seem to want to give this"Monster" and others like him, a cushy life trying to rehabilitate them, which has proved, in this case, a total waste of taxpayers money. It's high time we started to look after the victims and not the perpetrators.
Hope .P in him or her letter turns the world on its head, and seems to show all the pity to Venables and Thompson, it wasn't their fault they couldn't help but kill the little boy, some one else is to blame, parents, society, country, the Media, anyone but them, it goes without saying that our young people today, who show little or no respect for anyone be it Police , parents, teachers is systomatic of how laws have been twisted, self defence of property is discouraged, going to the aid of anyone being abused on transport or street is not given, and alowed to go unaposed, how have we arrived to this low level, fear of being human and standing up to those who threatn us, the pedulam has swang to far to the " do gooders" and left the abused unprotected.
The press love to dehumanise people. They love to use terms like 'monster' so that we 'the good people' can all feel better about ourselves when we run for our pitch forks.
The Bulger case was tragic, and my heart genuinely goes out to James Bulger's family. However, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were both 10 years old. How can a person be held morally responsible at 10 years old?
I think it's too easy to say 'throw away the key'. If you believe people were 'born evil' then no-one would choose to be evil and thus have no real responsibility; a dog is a dog, a monster is a monster etc. It does bring into question however this notion people have of an omnibenevolent God, if we are made in his image. But my point is if they were 'born evil' no-one would choose that.
But perhaps more likely Venables and Thompson were children who were not brought up properly, deeply disturbed, and let down by society themselves.
If Venables is reformed( and I believe he must be as otherwise he wouldn't have been released) then he has to carry the guilt of what he did with him, and to me that is punishment enough. He will never have a 'normal' life, or family etc.
Statistically 60 children die of neglect in the UK every year. If people focused as much attention on these facts and making the country better instead of revenge for their own self gratification I think we may actually move forward.
Thompson and Venables are human and a life is a life. This is fact.
A killer who has been sent back into the community only to break the rules of his parole, no surprise at all, after the paltry sentence he served. This monster should never have been released into society first time round, he knew exactly what he was doing when he and Robert Thompson murdered little Jamie Bulger.Throw away the key, he should rot in prison.
Can someone tell me what this his telling the young kids today.That it's ok to go out and murder someone because the goverment will protect you for the rest of your life they will spend thousands of tax payer's money on changing you name and give you a brand new face.Then they will stop anyone letting the public know who you are sounds like a good life for some of the kids today
2 things appear clear to me 1) the experiment which created the do good mambi pambi way that we treat our society has failed
2) there is no one in parliament with the guts to admit this and we continue to bow to brussels eg human rights issues.
i believe that as there was no doubts about the guilt of bulgers killers and they should have been executed for their crime as there must be something fundamentally wrong with their makeuk and are not capable of change, as proven by the present situation why spend thousands of our money to keep them in prison
My niece was killed by a drink driver and I am aware from experience how awful these things can be for the family and for others. I think what these two boys did was horrendous. However, they were young boys and have served a sentence. Not as long as the family sentence I am sure but we should leave them to live there lives. Nothing can be achieved by hounding them, you can never undo what they have done
it seems to me that these people are being rewarded for what they have done why ???
My personal view is that even at 10 years old him and his partner in crime knew what they were doing was wrong, they were evil and they will both be evil for the rest of their lives, Life inprisonment should mean what it says
Why his this killer being given so much protection.He his now a adult and should not be treated differant than any other prisoner
It is societys' lynch mob attitude which is to blame for all of this. Also the silly tabloid papers (not worthy of being called NEWS papers) which are to blame. He should not be getting any special treatment and a new identity was and is a nonsense.
So The Mail is whining about how much a second new identity is going to cost? If the press hadn't been so determind to dig as deep as they could to 'out' him, it wouldn't be an issue..........you reap what you sow.
Another new identity? If he wasn't able to cope with the first change, will he do so with another one? It seems it would be better to say he has broken the rules (assuming the rumours are true) and keep him inside. It is hard to see he will not do more harm if let out. At this stage I cannot see why anyone should think of anything except minimising the problems for society; venables' life should not come into consideration. It may seem unfair, he was a child when he committed the offence that caused then problems. But there are problems, so somebody must bear the consequences. Why someone else rather than him? Wouldn't you rather spend the money on taking terminally ill kids to te seaside?
The obvious thing is to keep him in prison for life, not reward him with another new identity and another fresh start. He's had his chance and blew it - now throw away the key!