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.
Mr 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.
The furious father slammed a decision to spend £5million on rehabilitation and protecting Venables’ true identity and his co-killer’s, Robert Thompson.
Jon Venables (pictured after he was arrested as a 10-year-old), one of the killers of James Bugler, is back in jail after being caught with child porn – the second time he’s been recalled
Ralph Bulger (left, in 2011), James’ father, said that monster Venables could kill again and should spend the rest of his life behind bars
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
The crime made Thompson and Venables the youngest killers in modern English history
‘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 rehabilitate Venables had failed because he had re-offended, so should be stripped of his anonymity.
Mr Bulger also said believes that his son’s killer should be treated ‘no differently’ to other child murderers.
How Bulger killer Jon Venables is back in jail for the second time in seven years
Jon Venables is back in prison
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 twi
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
The toddler’s mutilated body was found on a railway line in Walton, Liverpool, two days after he was abducted
Ralph and Denise Bulger, parents of James, during an emotional police press conference in the aftermath of his death
The canal in Bootle, Merseyside, where it is thought Jon Venables and Robert Thompson threatened to throw James Bulger in as they toyed with how to torture him
Mr Bulger said: ‘They cannot let this monster out of jail ever again. Venables will strike again and harm or kill another child like my James.’
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 admit that it was sexually motivated.
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.