Jon Venables and Robert Thompson in their original police mugshots. Photo / Supplied
Jon Venables and Robert Thompson in their original police mugshots. Photo / Supplied
One of British toddler James Bulger's killers has reportedly demanded plastic surgery after photographs allegedly showing what he looks like now were circulated on social media at the weekend.
At least two images purporting to be recent snaps of Jon Venables, now 35, were leaked to Twitter along with his new name and the prison in which he is currently incarcerated.
The photographs, seen by news.com.au, were posted by a vigilante who has been circulating information about Venables and his co-accused Robert Thompson on Twitter since 2013.
They were removed from the platform but not before the images were shared countless times in violation of a worldwide court injunction which prevents images of the pair from being published or shared online.
Shameless actor Tina Malone is one of several members of the public who now face the possibility of prosecution after she shared a tweet said to reveal the new identity of Venables and that of his girlfriend, according to reports in the UK press.
Now Venables is reportedly terrified of being attacked or killed in jail, where he is serving time following a recent conviction for downloading child pornography, and has begged authorities for an operation to change his looks.
"He says he is a dead man walking and is terrified once people discover who he is he will be killed," a prison source told The Star.
"Venables knows that there are plenty of people who are willing to do a life sentence to have him dead.
"Being in jail is no protection either. He says he is just as at risk on the inside as he is in the outside world."
Venables has reportedly now been moved to a segregated unit for his own safety and said to be on suicide watch.
Venables and Thompson abducted, tortured and killed two-year-old James in Liverpool in 1993 when they were both aged just 10.
A security camera shot shows murder victim James Bulger being led away from the shopping mall by his two killers/
Haunting CCTV footage shows the pair leading the tiny, trusting boy from a Merseyside shopping mall.
The toddler was found two days later on a railway embankment with horrific injuries inflicted with an iron bar and bricks; his body was left across a track, where it was cut in two by a train to make it look like an accident.
They were released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years for the murder and were both given new identities.
Thompson, who was seen as the more dominant of the two and, according to Venables' police statement was "the one who started throwing bricks at him" (James) first, has not been in trouble since.
Venables on the other hand, has been returned to prison twice for child pornography related offences.
The British government has reportedly spent in excess of $1.7 million of taxpayers' money on at least four different identities for Venables.
This latest alleged leak of images purporting to show what he looks like now could force authorities to give him yet another.
In 2013, two men were given suspended prison sentences for posting images they claimed to be of Venables and Thompson on Facebook in contravention of Britain's Contempt of Court Act 1981.
The High Court injunction put in place by Judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss states: "Any depiction, image in any form, photograph, film or voice recording made or taken on or after 18 February 1993, which purports to be of Jon Venables or Robert Thompson or any description which purports to be of their physical appearance, voices or accents at any time since that date" is in breach of the order.
Any breach of this order, effective worldwide, is a "contempt of court" punishable by up to two years in prison and an unlimited fine.
