Photo via Daily Mail

Jon Venables will not face a public parole hearing despite James Bulger's mother's plea

Read the original at Daily Mail ↗
Cite

Boys, J. (2026, September 28). Jon Venables will not face a public parole hearing despite James Bulger's mother's plea. Daily Mail. https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16166687/Jon-Venables-not-face-public-parole-hearing-despite-James-Bulgers-mothers-plea.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Daily Mail · collected 2026-09-28 · by Jamie Boys

Quick Summary

The Parole Board has decided that Jon Venables, who was involved in the 1993 murder of two-year-old James Bulger, will have his upcoming parole hearing held in private despite a plea from Denise Fergus, James's mother, for it to be public. The board cited concerns over identifying the prisoner and sensationalizing the case as reasons against holding it publicly. Venables, now 44 years old, was first released on license in 2001 but has been recalled twice since due to convictions related to child indecent images.
Written by AI on 2026-09-28, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

In February 1993, Jon Venables and his friend Robert Thompson, both aged 10, kidnapped and murdered James Bulger, a two-year-old boy, in Bootle, Merseyside. This heinous crime shocked the nation due to its brutality and the young age of the perpetrators. The case remains highly sensitive; now, 44-year-old Venables is facing another parole hearing for his release from prison. Despite Denise Fergus, James's mother, pleading for a public hearing to hold Venables accountable and combat misinformation about her son's murder, the Parole Board has decided it will be held in private. The board cited potential risks to Venables’s safety if the hearing were made public and noted that it would be hard for him to testify under such conditions.

Written for “James Bulger Case Parole Hearing” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 James Bulger Case Parole Hearing
Crime & Law · 2 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 5% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
BBC News
Hedges 2 of 14 claims Outlet record 68/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
19
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
5%
1 of 19 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
69/100
Daily Mail's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
2
Crime & Law
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-28 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Daily Mail · 9143 article(s) · 22 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 22 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Jamie Boys
73 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 The Frenchman, 40, who spent several seasons in the Premier League with Spurs, Newcastle and Norwich, was stopped by a Transport for London (TfL) officer after he was spotted tailgating a friend through the barriers at St Paul's station in May.
🔮 She said: 'I could hear a lot of noise and so I looked out from an upstairs window and I could see a lot of teenagers further up the road outside a neighbour's house. '
🔮 I hope people will know what to expect from future public performance artworks, though we are not currently planning a third joust.'
🔮 He was set to face a gross misconduct investigation this month after reportedly failing a random alcohol breath test in July.
🔮 'We do nobody any favours by sticking our head in the sand and pretending all is well; this is being felt by people and will have long term impacts ranging from individual health and happiness to the future shape of our economy.
🔮 He would do anything for anyone, all you had to do was ask.
🔮 The ceasefire in Ukraine's southern Kherson region was expected to continue through Sunday evening.
🔮 So when the mosque submitted plans to increase its capacity by building into the loft, more than 20 residents wrote letters of objection, warning it would make the situation unbearable.
🔮 In her email Rouass ‘apologised for inconvenience and distress caused’ and said she would ‘accept the ban and will not fight it’.
🔮 Bill Gates has warned that the continued development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots will cause widespread job losses.
Also by Jamie Boys
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 73 articles by Jamie Boys →

Topics

Bootle Daily Mail Merseyside Parole Board the Parole Board

Subjects

James Bulger PERSON · 4× Jon Venables PERSON · 4× the Parole Board ORG · 4× Denise Fergus PERSON · 3× Fergus PERSON · 3× Bootle PERSON · 2× Merseyside GPE · 2× Parole Board ORG · 2× Robert Thompson PERSON · 2× Venables PERSON · 2×

Narrative

Jon Venables (pictured) was 10-years-old when he and Robert Thompson, also 10, tortured and killed the two-year-old after luring him away from his mother Denise Fergus as she was shopping in Bootle, Merseyside, on 12 February 1993 The murder of James Bulger (pictured) caused shockwaves nationally both due to the horrific details of the attack and the age of his killers Denise Fergus, the mother of murdered toddler James Bulger, outside the Old Bailey in London in 2018 John Saunders, on behalf of the Parole Board, wrote on the decision: 'I note that a high bar has been set for a public hearing to be in the interests of justice and I have decided that this high bar is not met in this case.'
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-28
🔮 - See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Jon Venables will not face a public parole hearing despite the desperate plea from murdered toddler James Bulger's mother. Denise Fergus demanded that the upcoming parole hearing for her son's killer be held in public so he is forced to 'face up' to his crimes.

Claims (19 extracted, 1 hedged)

- See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Jon Venables will not face a public parole hearing despite the desperate plea from murdered toddler James Bulger's mother. Denise Fergus demanded that the upcoming parole hearing for her son's killer be held in public so he is forced to 'face up' to his crimes. asserted
he → see → crimes
But the murderer will have his latest parole bid heard in private, the Parole Board has decided. asserted
Board → have → ?
The 44-year-old, who tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger in 1993, will have his case heard by parole chiefs at an oral hearing more than two years after his last appeal. asserted
case → torture → appeal
Parole Board hearings are usually held in private but they can be made public 'in the interests of justice'. asserted
they → hold → justice
A number of media organisations also applied for a public hearing. asserted
number → apply → hearing
Ms Fergus had pleaded for the hearing to be held in public to also help combat 'misinformation' about the case which had a 'retraumatising impact' on her. asserted
which → plead → her
The board noted that making the case public would increase 'the risk of identifying the prisoner and of sensationalising the case'. asserted
case → note → case
It added that a public hearing would make it 'very difficult for Jon Venables to give evidence' because he could be 'being listened to by people who are seeking to get information so that they can kill him'. uncertain
they → add → him
Venables was given lifetime anonymity because he committed the crime as a child. asserted
he → give → child
Jon Venables (pictured) was 10-years-old when he and Robert Thompson, also 10, tortured and killed the two-year-old after luring him away from his mother Denise Fergus as she was shopping in Bootle, Merseyside, on 12 February 1993 The murder of James Bulger (pictured) caused shockwaves nationally both due to the horrific details of the attack and the age of his killers Denise Fergus, the mother of murdered toddler James Bulger, outside the Old Bailey in London in 2018 John Saunders, on behalf of the Parole Board, wrote on the decision: 'I note that a high bar has been set for a public hearing to be in the interests of justice and I have decided that this high bar is not met in this case.' asserted
bar → picture → case
Jon Venables was 10 when he and fellow schoolboy Robert Thompson , also 10, abducted, tortured and murdered two-year-old James after leading him away from his mother while she was shopping in Bootle, Merseyside, on February 12, 1993. asserted
she → abduct → February
Now 44, Venables was first released on licence in 2001 but has since twice been recalled to prison after being convicted of possessing indecent images of children in 2010 and again in 2017. asserted
Venables → release → 2017
His last attempt to secure release was rejected in 2023. asserted
attempt → secure → 2023
However, Mrs Fergus was informed in January that he would be given another opportunity to put his case before the Parole Board. asserted
he → inform → Board
A spokeswoman for Ms Fergus previously said her application to observe the hearing had been granted. asserted
application → say → hearing
Victims have been able to attend parole hearings held in private under reforms rolled out nationally in April as part of efforts to boost confidence in the justice system. asserted
Victims → attend → system
The rules began to change after a successful legal challenge over the decision to release black cab rapist Jon Worboys in 2018. asserted
rules → begin → 2018
The High Court later overturned that decision and also struck down the secrecy rules surrounding Parole Board decisions. asserted
Court → overturn → decisions
The Government subsequently introduced rules allowing members of the public to apply for hearings to be held in public in certain circumstances, although the Parole Board can still refuse those applications. asserted
Board → introduce → applications
💬Give feedback
🕘History 🎫Support