Toddler James Bulger’s vile killer Jon Venables has launched yet another bid for freedom, but his brave mum Denise has vowed to fight to keep him behind bars for the sickening crime
The mum of tragic James Bulger has told how she will demand to be at her son’s killer’s upcoming parole hearing to “look him in the eyes and remind him I’m still here”.
Brave Denise Fergus, whose son James was kidnapped and brutally killed in 1993, hopes her presence in Jon Venables’ parole hearing will help remind a panel of the impact of his crimes and keep him off the streets. It came as it emerged as that vile Venables, who has twice reoffended since killing James, had applied for parole and if successful could be free by the end of the year.
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Denise said: “This is mental torture for me. It was only December 2023 that his application was denied as he was not deemed fit for society. What has changed? He has a lifelong record of reoffending. When will we ever get respite from this? It makes it all flood back.”
On using new laws allowing victims’ families to apply to attend parole hearings, Denise said: “I will do whatever it takes to sit in that hearing, look him in the eye and remind him that we are still here, we haven’t forgiven, and we will never give up. I also want any parole board to realise that this person has not changed and that I believe he will kill again if he is given any kind of freedom.”
Just last month, it was announced that new laws that allow victims of crime or their families to apply to go to criminals’ parole hearings are to be rolled out across England Wales, which could pave the way for Denise to attend the crunch summit later this year. Denise revealed how she and husband Stuart met justice secretary Shabana Mahmood for the first time last month to impress her concerns about Venables’ potential release.
She was reassured that despite Venables currently being in prison for one of two child sex image offences he has committed since James’ murder, he will be treated as ‘a Category A prisoner’. Denise, who lives in Merseyside with Stuart, said: “The level of threat that they hold him at encourage me slightly but I have been burnt so many times before by promises from previous politicians.
“The justice secretary seemed to be taking it very seriously and promised to keep in close touch with us about the upcoming parole proceedings. We should get a letter any day now to say that it has formally started. For us, we had just started to get back to some kind of normality, being able to enjoy the family and normal things without the spectre of the prospect he could be released. But now, we are thrown back into battle mode. We should not have to keep going through this. He should never be released or even considered for parole.”
Little James Bulger was just two years old when he was abducted from a Merseyside shopping centre on 12 February, 1993. Two schoolboys, both aged 10, led the toddler out of the Strand shopping centre in Bootle while his mother, Denise Fergus, was paying for shopping at a butchers.
Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were truanting from school that day and had spent most of it hanging round the centre. An image of the boys caught on CCTV was released and became infamous with the case which shocked the nation.
CCTV also showed a frantic Denise desperately looking for her child. Thompson and Venables had led James two and a half miles to a railway track where they beat him to death. The killers served just eight years in a young offenders’ institute before being released on licence in 2001 when they were 18 years old.
Venables has reoffended twice over child abuse images and Denise has campaigned tirelessly to keep him in jail. In December 2023, the parole board ruled he was unfit to be released in a victory for James’ mum.