James Bulger's killer is charged with downloading 57 child porn pictures

Published on Monday 21 June 2010 23:23

JON Venables, one of the killers of toddler James Bulger, will appear in court next month charged with child pornography offences.

Venables, 27, is expected to enter his pleas to two charges via a prison videolink to the Old Bailey on 23 July.

He is accused of downloading 57 indecent photographs of children and making seven images available to others on the internet while the process was taking place.

The charges could note previously b reported because of an injunction imposed by Mr Justice Bean last month. Yesterday, he lifted the injunction after an application by the media.

Gavin Millar QC, for the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, said

: "A man known as Jon Venables has been charged with two offences."

The offences are alleged to have taken place between February 2009 and February 2010.

Mr Millar said a list of the photographs was on a schedule before the court.

Venables was also charged with distributing seven indecent images of children through the internet between 1 and 23 February this year.

Mr Millar said that the use of particular software meant the images had been exposed to "acquisition" by other net users searching for such material.

"There is no evidence that anybody did acquire them by that route," he added.

Venables and Robert Thompson were jailed for life for the 1993 murder of two-year-old James, who was led away from a shopping centre in Liverpool by the then ten-year-olds.

They were released on licence in 2001 and given new identities.

Among the conditions of release was that Venables should not return to Merseyside or contact Thompson.

Venables was recalled to prison in February this year, following the new allegations,

but reasons for his recall were not made public.

The then justice secretary Jack Straw defended the decision, saying the secrecy was in the public interest.

Mr Straw said keeping the information secret was "genuinely in the public interest".

"For very good reason we have had to keep restricted details as to why Mr Venables has been recalled," he said at the time.

"I was, however, very anxious that the victim's family should know that he was being recalled before they found it out from the newspapers.

"There is always a careful balance to be maintained. I have no interest in withholding information gratuitously or unnecessarily. But there are good reasons to withhold this information and that is genuinely in the public interest.

"I fully understand the frustrations people feel, but the reassurance for the Bulger family in particular, but also for the wider public, is that this system has worked."

At the time, one of the detective who led the investigation into the toddler's killing said the public should be told.

In March, Detective Albert Kirby said: "It would help to clarify and put this to rest once and for all if the public did have some indication of what it is he has done.

"Not where he is or details like that, but the reason why his probation has been revoked and he is back inside."

Mark Thomas, the editor of the Liverpool Daily Post, who wrote a definitive book about the Bulger case, backed the public's right to know what happened.

He said: "The law fell short of public expectations in allowing them to be released without spending any time in an adult prison.

"The public are now going to be worried, and they have a right to know what he has done.

"Denise (the victim's mother] must be going through terrible torments of uncertainty as to just what has gone on."