Jon Venables, 10 years of age, poses for a mugshot for British authorities February 20, 1993 in the United Kingdom. Photo / Getty Images
Jon Venables, 10 years of age, poses for a mugshot for British authorities February 20, 1993 in the United Kingdom. Photo / Getty Images
The father of murdered toddler James Bulger is calling for an up-to-date picture of his son's killer to be shown to the world.
Ralph Bulger, 51, said he wants Jon Venables to be stripped of his anonymity after he was discovered with child-abuse images on his computer and jailed.
Bulger said that Venables, who is 35, should be given an adult life sentence for his part in the horrific murder of his two-year-old son 24 years ago, according to the Daily Mail.
Ralph Bulger, the father of James Bulger, outside at Liverpool Crown Court, where a victim personal statement to Jon Venables' parole board was made on his behalf. Photo / Getty Images
The furious father slammed a decision to spend £5 million (NZ$9.6m) on rehabilitation and protecting Venables' true identity and his co-killer's, Robert Thompson.
"If people saw a photo of him as the adult monster he truly is they would have a very different perception of the person committing the crimes instead of a picture of so-called childhood innocence," Mr Bulger told The Sunday People.
He added that efforts by the authorities to rehabilitate Venables had failed because he had reoffended, so should be stripped of his anonymity.
Mr Bulger also said he believes that his son's killer should be treated "no differently" to other child murderers.
Venables and his friend Robert Thompson were only 10 when they killed two-year-old James in 1993, after abducting him from a shopping centre in Bootle, Liverpool.
They led the two-year-old along a canal and down a towpath before battering him with an iron bar.
They also poured paint into his eyes, stoned him and hit him with bricks before leaving him on a railway line to be hit a train.
In CCTV footage that shocked a nation, Venables (seen holding the toddler's hand) and Thompson are seen leading James out of the shopping centre and towards his death.
CCTV footage shows the final moments of James Bulger's life, as he is led to a railway track by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson.
They were jailed but released with new identities after serving eight years, without spending a day in an adult prison.
In 2010, however, it emerged Venables, 32, was back behind bars for breaking the conditions of his release by downloading and distributing more than 100 images of child abuse, some involving victims as young as two.
He is now back behind bars after more abuse images with discovered on his computer.
He added: "You only have to look at the manner in which they tortured my son before killing him to know this is true but no one wanted to hear it or believe it because Thompson and Venables were just ten. Now they're not."
The father said that, in light of Venables' recent offending, justice chiefs must look again at James' murder and admit that it was sexually motivated.
Venables and his friend Robert Thompson were only ten when they killed two-year-old James in 1993, after abducting him from a shopping centre in Bootle, Liverpool. Photo / Getty Images
He criticised the Ministry of Justice for failing to inform him that Venables had been recalled to prison.
Mr Bulger, who was married to James' mother Denise, is now settled with his partner Natalie McDermott and the pair had a baby daughter together in 2013.
He expressed sadness that his daughter would never be able to meet her big brother.
"It will always be tinged with sadness because James is missing from out family but I will tell my girl all about James as she grows up."
How Bulger killer Jon Venables is back in jail
Jon Venables was first released from prison in 2001, at the age of 18, and given a new identity to protect him from the risk of vigilante attacks - but he has been returned to jail twice.
At the time, a psychiatrist ruled that he did not pose a danger to the public and was extremely unlikely to commit any further offences.
However, he developed drinking and drugs problems, and he compromised his identity at least twice by telling friends he was a convicted murderer.
Jon Venables, 10 years of age, poses for a mugshot for British authorities February 20, 1993 in the United Kingdom. Photo / Getty Images
When a probation officer visited his home in Cheshire in 2010 to discuss his fears that he could be in danger, he was attempting to destroy the hard drive of his computer.
The hard drive was later examined by police, who discovered that it contained dozens of indecent images of children.
Venables admitted that he had posed online as a 35-year-old woman who had abused her eight-year-old daughter, and was returned to prison.
JAMES BULGER MURDERER 'USED A DATING SITE IN SEARCH OF SINGLE MOTHERS'
James Bulger's twisted killer was also using online dating websites in search of single mothers while amassing a haul of child-abuse images, it has been revealed.
Jon Venables, who was just 10 when he tortured and murdered two-year-old James, was last week recalled to prison over the sick stash of pictures.
But the murderer was also using a dating website that is popular with single mothers, sources say.
"Police had known he had tried this before. He's been warned repeatedly but thinks he's untouchable," a source told the Daily Star Sunday.
"He has had secret identities, costing ridiculous amounts of money and all at the cost of the taxpayer, and thinks he will continue to be protected.
After discovering Venables' haul of abuse images, officers also found he was using the "well-known, well-used, dating site".
Officers were said to be "concerned" because he was trying to access women who made no secret of having young children.
TIMELINE: JAMES BULGER'S MURDER AND THE CONVICTION OF TWO KILLERS
1993
February 12: Two-year-old James Bulger is snatched during a shopping trip to the Strand shopping centre, in Bootle, Merseyside.
February 14: The toddler's battered body is found by children playing on a freight railway line 200 yards from Walton Lane police station, Liverpool, and more than two miles from the Strand shopping centre.
February 18: Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both 10-year-olds, are arrested in connection with the murder of James, and later charged. They are the youngest to be charged with murder in the 20th century.
Two year-old James Bulger, tortured and killed by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson in Bootle, England, in 1993. Photo / Getty Images
February 22 There are violent scenes outside South Sefton Magistrates' Court in Bootle, when the two primary school pupils, then known as Child A and Child B, make their first appearance.
November 24: Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, now both aged 11, are convicted of James Bulger's murder following a 17-day trial at Preston Crown Court. They are ordered to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, the normal substitute sentence for life imprisonment when the offender is a juvenile.
1994
July: The eight year sentence tariff set by the trial judge, which has already been increased to 10 years by Lord Chief Justice Lord Taylor of Gosforth, is increased again to 15 years by the Home Secretary Michael Howard.
June: The Law Lords rule by a majority that Mr Howard has acted illegally in raising the boys' tariff.
1999
March: The European Commission on Human Rights finds that Thompson and Venables were denied a fair trial and fair sentencing by an impartial and independent tribunal.
2000
March: Home Secretary Jack Straw says he will not set a date for Thompson and Venables' release.
October: Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf reinstates the trial judge's original tariff, paving the way for their release.
January: James Bulger's killers win an unprecedented court order from High Court judge Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss which grants them anonymity for the rest of their lives.
June: Thompson and Venables are freed under new identities.
The headstone of murdered toddler James Buger in Kirkdale cemetery in Fazakerley, Liverpool. Photo / Getty Images
2008
September: Venables is arrested on suspicion of affray after he and another man become involved in a drunken street fight. He is given a formal warning by the Probation Service about breaching the good behaviour expected of him as a condition of his licence.
Later the same year he is cautioned for possession of cocaine after he was found with a small amount of the class A drug, which was said to be for personal use. The public remains unaware of both offences until 2010.
March 2: Venables is returned to prison after breaching the terms of his release, the Ministry of Justice says. It kick-starts frenzied media speculation over the nature of the alleged breach.
April 16: Prosecutors handed a police file over the latest allegations.
June 21: A judge at the Old Bailey lifts media restrictions, allowing it to be reported that Venables has been charged with downloading and distributing child pornography.
July 23: Venables pleads guilty to the charges. He is sentenced to two years in prison. James Bulger's mother Denise Fergus attacks the length of sentence as "simply not enough".
July 30: A judge rules Venables' new identity must be kept secret because of the "compelling evidence" of a threat to his safety, saying "unpopular" defendants had as much right to protection from retribution as anyone else.
April 26: Two users of social media who breached the injunction banning the revelation of the new identities of Venables and Thompson receive suspended jail sentences.
July 4: Sources reveal Venables has been granted parole.
