Jon Venables jailed for two years for child porn

Jon Venables, one of the killers of toddler James Bulger, has been jailed for two years after pleading guilty to child pornography charges at the Old Bailey. Venables, who is now 27, was only visible to the judge, in order to keep his new identity safe.

He admitted downloading 57 indecent photographs of children on to his computer between February 2009 and February this year.

He also pleaded guilty to distributing seven indecent images of children in February this year by allowing files on his computer to be accessed through a peer-to-peer network. He was due to be sentenced later today.
 
Among those attending the Old Bailey on Friday morning was Denise Fergus, the mother of James Bulger, whom Venables and his friend Robert Thompson killed in 1993 when both boys were 10-years-old.

It was a case that shocked Britain. The pair abducted the two-year-old from a Bootle shopping centre and left him for dead by a railway line after beating him with bricks and an iron bar.
 
They were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in November 1993. Venables served eight years behind bars before being released on license in 2001 and being given a new, secret identity. In March it was revealed that he had been returned to prison for breaching his parole.
 
The nature of the charges he was facing only came to light at a preliminary hearing last month.
 
The case has sparked widespread publicity and Venables's former solicitor, Lawrence Lee, has said that the lifting of reporting restrictions has undermined Venables's anonymity and jeopardised his safety.
 
Because Venables is a 'lifer', he will have to spend far longer in jail than the two-year term he received this afternoon. He will not be released until he can convince a parole board that he will not re-offend if he is set free on licence for a second time. ·