Jon Venables was released in 2001. Photo / Getty Images
Jon Venables was released in 2001. Photo / Getty Images
Kiwis have slammed the idea of the infamous child killer Jon Venables, the murderer of 2-year-old James Bulger, possibly moving from the United Kingdom to New Zealand to start a new life.
British officials have reportedly grown tired of creating new identities for Venables who was granted lifelong anonymity after he was found guilty of murder aged 10.
Having to fund legal battles to keep his name secret is behind the relocation, with Canada the most likely destination but New Zealand and Australian also options.
Jon Venables was released in 2001. Photo / Getty Images
"The thinking is that it would be cheaper to get rid of him abroad, than keep forking out," a source told the Daily Star.
The news has outraged Kiwis, with many believing that the UK shouldn't have granted his life-time suppression in the first place.
"UK don't want him here. The UK granted lifelong UK taxpayer-funded anonymity when he was released from life sentences. The UK can keep him!", one person wrote.
Another said: "Thanks but no thanks. Keep your own problems as we have enough of our own."
One Kiwi mentioned that our country has gone through enough this year after the Christchurch terror attacks and that we don't need any more "heartache".
Another agreed, writing: "Just because our [crime] levels are high doesn't mean we are your holiday destination. Go home, stay home we got enough of our own issues to deal with first."
The plan was even criticised by a Brit who said Venables should remain in the country and live life without government protection.
"I really hope this isn't true. He needs to stay [in the UK] and the authorities need to let us know his new identity and let us deal with him! How can they even begin to think this is an okay thing to do. Let him sun it up while that poor baby's family are here suffering every day of their lives," the UK resident wrote.
Australians were equally outraged after finding out their country is a potential home for Venables.
Thousands of Australians lashed out saying the UK's problem shouldn't be pushed onto other countries with others offering even stronger views.
"No thanks, keep him in your country! Leave Australia out of the equation, deal with your own issues & let us deal with ours," one said.
"I thought they stopped sending convicts here 150 years ago," another person quipped.
"Why the hell does he get to start life again under a new identity when that poor little boy didn't get to live his. What is wrong with this society. Should be life for a life," another said.
Venables and Robert Thompson, also aged 10, snatched Bulger from his mother in a Liverpool shopping centre in 1993.
Jon Venables could be sent to New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images
The pair tortured, killed, and tied the body of Bulger to a train track in Merseyside, North-West England.
Both killers were granted lifelong UK taxpayer-funded anonymity and given new identities when they were released from life sentences in 2001.
Venables, now 36, has been convicted twice since his release, once in 2010 and again in February 2018 after admitting to possessing "sickening" child porn images and a paedophile manual.
Earlier this year it was revealed it had cost the UK taxpayers $125,642 (£65,000) in legal battles to keep his identity a secret.
In March the father of Bulger, Ralph Bulger, wanted to identify Venables publicly after he was jailed for possessing child abuse images.
In his legal battle, Ralph argued information about Venables which was already "common knowledge" should be made public, adding that certain details about him were easily accessible online.
However, the UK's president of the family division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, refused to change the terms of the order, saying it was a "wholly exceptional case" which was designed to protect the "uniquely notorious" Venables from "being put to death".
According to the Guardian, he said "There is a strong possibility, if not a probability, that if his identity were known he would be pursued resulting in grave and possibly fatal consequences …
"My decision is in no way a reflection on the applicants themselves, for whom there is a profoundest sympathy. The reality is that the case for varying the injunction has simply not been made."
Bulger's mother Denise Fergus told the BBC at the time she didn't support the legal bid, saying she does not want "blood on her hands".
Comment is being sought from New Zealand immigration authorities.
