Jon Venables Saved By The Nanny State
IT has taken Jon Venables, one of James Bulger’s killers, almost 18 years but he has finally brought the British judicial system to its knees, writes AGW.
Top politicians and judicial Law Lords seem to dither while faced with an increasing media storm.
It has been the equivalent of watching a nanny give a pyromaniac child a big box of matches. The situation gets worse.
Venables was 10-years-old when he and Robert Thompson, also 10, killed two-year-old James Bulger in a viciously cruel attack. The murder horrified the UK and the two and a half week trial at Preston Crown Court resulted in the the conviction of two children for murder. Thompson and Venables were the youngest individuals to be convicted of murder in the UK.
On their release Judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss who had conducted the public inquiry in the Cleveland Child abuse scandal during 1987, granted them life-long anonymity.
Yesterday in the House of Lords Baroness Butler-Sloss, left, backed her decision.
Justice Secretary, Jack Straw had already refused, in the House of Commons, to give in to demands to reveal reasons for Venables recall to prison.
Baroness Butler-Sloss said:
“The enormous importance of protecting his anonymity now, and if he is [again] released, because those who wanted to kill him in 2001 are likely to be out there now.”
Meanwhile. James Bulger’s mother threw Jack Straw, who has said he will meet her, a lifeline by saying she was “prepared to wait a bit longer” for details to prevent jeopardising any future court case.
All along this Venables and Thompson sentence and subsequent protection has been an increasingly weird and disastrous catalogue of system failures.
Leading the campaign, well in front and demanding more information, has been The Sun. It has done a good job of digging and has consistently been the first with the news.
There is history: In 1994 The Sun newspaper had given the then Tory Home Secretary Michael Howard a 280,000 signatures petition to increase the time spent by both boys in custody.
The Sun won and in July 1994 Howard announced the boys would be kept in custody for a minimum of fifteen years. They would not be considered for release until February 2008. They would have been 25-years-old before being considered for release and would have been transferred from secure children’s units to adult prisons.
The Law Lords were appalled and Lord Donaldson slammed the political intervention, describing it as “institutionalised vengeance“. The increased minimum term was overturned in 1997 by the House of Lords, who ruled that it was “unlawful” for the Home Secretary to decide on minimum sentences for offenders aged under 18.
Since then sentence tariffs have been removed from politicians and put back to the courts. The trial judge has the biggest responsibility.
It is days since Venables’ life licence was revoked. No-one has yet announced why that was done.
Sex, drugs, violence, child pornography and once a murderer always a thoroughly rotten bastard have all been thrown in the media ring.
Still the top Law Officer in Britain, Justice Secretary Jack Straw can not or will not say if Venables is to be charged and face trial. We have no idea who this man now is and if he would be charged and tried under his new or old name.
The other option is to simply allow the already convened Parole Board to revoke his life-licence and incarcerate him until he is considered fit for release once again. That would be a decision handed down by three or four people headed by a judge. No trial, just swept under the jail’s welcome mat.
From the very beginning of this the secrecy has been a concern and yet again it has to be stressed that once secrecy is applied and important matters of law are adjudged behind locked court doors the only end result is State tyranny.
This is not a matter of Terrorism or State security, it is about dealing with alleged criminal activity and there can be no allowable security blanket for crime whether sexual, violent or financial.
It is time to stop pussy-footing around and either charge the man, in which case already well-established rules of Contempt of Court will begin to apply, or announce what the findings of the Parole hearing are. It is not beyond the wit of any Justice Secretary to have that Parole Board hearing TODAY.
1278946
James Bulger the 2 year old boy who went missing in the Bootle area of Liverpool. 2/2/01 Proceedings which could decide the release of the killers of toddler James were getting under way in private. * Lawyers for Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 18, were presenting their arguments before a parole board hearing, held at a secret location believed to be somewhere in London, for the first time. The killers were not at the preliminary hearing but were being informed of its outcome at the separate secure accommodation centres in northern England where they have been since their convictions for James' murder in 1993. The three-strong parole board panel was today listening to legal arguments, examining reports and dossiers and discussing which witnesses are required for the full hearing. * 3/12/93 3 youths being questioned. 4/5/93 Two 10yr olds pleaded not guilty to the abduction and murder of James. 31/10/93 Boys go on trial 24/11/93 Court verdict 25/5/94 12/6/97 Home Secretary Michael Howard to increase the sentence to 15 years Undated library filer of murdered toddler James Bulger, from Liverpool. 30/07/1996 - James Bulgers killers Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were sentenced to indefinite life sentences. 12/06/97: The House of Lords is due to rule on whether former Home Secretary Michael Howard was right to increase the sentences of the two boys convicted of James' murder from eight to fifteen years. 06/03/98: Lawyers for Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, the two boys convicted of murdering James, are taking their case to the European Commission of Human Rights, claiming they were not given a fair trial. 16/12/1999 - Thw Euorpean Court of Human Rights rules that Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were given an unfair trial. Judges ruled that the environment of an adult court and the intense publicity surrounding the trial prejudiced the hearing and breached human rights 12/3/00 British shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe reacted with 'great disappointment' to news that killers of toddler James Bulger could be freed in three years. She said the Bulger family would be 'devastated' by moves to release Robert Thompson and Jon Venables so soon after the 1993 murder of the two-year-old on a Liverpool railway line. The Home Office has refused to comment on reports that Home Secretary Jack Straw will this week announce he will stand by the minimum 10-year sentences set by the Lord Chief Justice. 8/1/2001: Family Division President Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss ruled that the boys identities and whereabouts must be kept confidential for the rest of their lives. 20/6/01: The Parole Board was beginning its deliberations on the second schoolboy killer of toddler James Bulger. Robert Thompson, now 18, was due to attend the meeting at a secret location after the panel completed its examination of his partner in the February 1993 murder, Jon Venables. Both could be freed within days if the panel decides they are no longer a risk to the public. 20/06/01 The Parole Board was, beginning its deliberations on the second schoolboy killer of toddler James Bulger. Robert Thompson, now 18, was due to attend the meeting at a secret location after the panel completed its examination of his partner in the February 1993 murder, Jon Venables. Both could be freed within days if the panel decides they are no longer a risk to the public. The pair were just 10 when they abducted two-year-old James from the Strand shopping precinct in Bootle, Merseyside, before torturing him and battering him to death on a railway line. *07/08/2001....Undated handout family collect photo of murdered boy James Bulger. A controversial comedy centered on a teenager who abducts and kills a child was, taking to the stage at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Age of Consent has faced a barrage of criticism by some people who say the story is too similar to that of James Bulger. The play by award-winning writer Peter Morris tells the story of a toddler's murder through the eyes of teenage killer Timmy. 12/2/03: Thousands of Merseysiders were expected to observe a one-minute silence, to mark the tenth anniversary of the murder of toddler James Bulger. The Liverpool Town Hall flag was being flown at half-mast in memory of the two-year-old Kirkby boy whose battered body was found on an isolated railway line.
The Story so far:
Jon Venables: The Rapist, The Porn And The Parents
Life’s Been Hell For Jon Venables, James Bulger’s Killer Accused Of Possessing Child Porn
John Venables ‘Sex Crime’ As Jack Straw Forced To Meet James Bulger’s Mum Denise Fergus
James Bulger And Jon Venables: The Killer Worked As A Bouncer
James Bulger And Jon Venables: The Killer Is Identified
Jon Venables’ Girlfriend, A ‘Stabbing’ And A Politically Incorrect Jack Straw
James Bulger: This IS Jon Venables
James Bulger’s Killer Jon Venables: Pictures And Sickening Detail
Posted: 9th, March 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (12) | TrackBack | Permalink
