3.4.

2011

Its only Mossnroll

The rocker whos making
an honest woman of Kate
As good as gold
The schoolkids aiming
for Olympic glory

CHILD
KILLER At 10, he murdered a
toddler. Now Jon Venables
is back in jail. A searing
investigation into what went
wrong. By David James Smith

stm03001 1
April 3, 2011 The Sunday Times Magazine 01 25/03/2011 12:18
 Cover Story Jon Venables

A CONSPIRACY OF LIES...
A CRIME THAT WILL NEVER GO AWAY

THE SECRET
LIFE OF
A KILLER
Jon Venables, one of Britains most notorious
murderers, is now back in jail on child pornography
charges. David James Smith, the writer who has
followed his life from boy to man, tells the full story
of his chaotic rehabilitation and how he uncovered
the sex scandal surrounding Venables care

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22 The Sunday Times Magazine April 3, 2011 April 3, 2011 The Sunday Times Magazine 23 25/03/2011 18:44
 Cover Story

on Venables was 10 years old in Left: a map of schools and other

February 1993 when he and
Robert Thompson, who was also
J items were found last summer
at the home of a paedophile
10, lured a small boy, James Bulger, from linked to Jon Venables. Below:
his mother and killed him during a Denise Fergus, James Bulgers
prolonged and savage assault on a railway mother, leaves the Old Bailey
line in Liverpool. The murder occupies an last year. Right: Red Bank
unsettling corner of our national psyche. Is secure unit on Merseyside
this what children are capable of? Nobody
who is old enough to remember that crime
will ever forget it. child sexuality for years before it was
Venables was 18 when he was freed from discovered. They would agree it is also
Red Bank secure unit in St Helens, highly likely, if not axiomatic, that this
Merseyside, in 2001, and 27 when he was interest came about as a result of some
recalled to prison early last year after being abuse or other disturbing incident, or
caught with child pornography on his incidents, that Venables may have suffered
computer. His new identity had been in his past. Had he kept a secret hidden
compromised at his place of work, and the through some or all of the years of his
police came in a hurry to take him into detention and rehabilitation?
protective custody. An officer found him in But then this is a story with so many
his flat trying to remove or destroy the hard secrets. From the moment I heard
drive on his desktop PC with his offender about Venables interest in child
manager (probation officer) looking on. pornography, I was cast back to the
The police later examined the hard drive for still-unanswered questions about the murder
themselves and found several dozen images of James Bulger why it happened, and the
of varying seriousness which Venables had Robert was the brute. Jon was led, Robert the extent to which the attack may have been
downloaded and, in some cases, redistributed. leader. But if you took the trouble to look at the sexually motivated. I was reminded, too, of
The worst of them depicted penetrative sex with facts they suggested something different Jon concerns about the way in which Venables and
seven- or eight-year-olds. showing much of the running in the many Thompson were overseen after their release on
Everyone around him was said to have been exchanges they had with adults as they walked life licence in 2001, when an extraordinary
shocked to discover that Venables was a James to his death, and Jon apparently having bureaucracy was created just for them.
paedophile. Nobody, apparently, had seen that initiated the idea in the first place. The accounts The then home secretary, David Blunkett,
coming. It is the great and enduring mystery of of his teachers suggested he was far more added his own conditions to their licence and away from the city where the parents of his
the Bulger case: why, among all the experts who troubled than anyone realised. Or that was how insisted on being fed daily reports so that he victim still lived. He ought to have been sent
had met him and worked with him during his it seemed to me, then and ever since. could keep tabs on what the two young men straight back to prison for that alone, but
years of detention, was there a consensus that I heard often over the years how brilliantly he were up to. The bureaucrats were so desperate to somehow nobody knew what he was up to. ONE FORMER MEMBER OF THE RED BANK MANAGEMENT TEAM UNDERSTOOD
THAT VENABLES AND THE WOMAN HAD SEX
PREVIOUS PAGES: PA. THIS PAGE, BOTTOM: PAUL ROGERS/THE TIMES. OPPOSITE PAGE: JIM CLARKE/THE SUN

Venables was rehabilitated? The risk he posed was doing in rehabilitation and, I am sorry to say, protect their projects Venables and Thompson This has since been investigated by an
was trivial, said Sir Michael Rutter, one of this I never quite believed it. I wanted him to do well, and watch their own backs that they routinely independent adviser, Sir David Omand, who was
countrys most eminent child psychiatrists, after he deserved his chance of a second life (even if deceived and withheld information about them asked by the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, to WHEN SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ESCORTING HIM ON A MOBILITY EXERCISE
meeting Venables and not for the first time, he had denied life to James Bulger), but I often from people who ought to have been told. find out what went wrong. His 114-page report,
either in the run-up to his parole in 2000. wondered what he was truly like and whether he The deception was mainly intended to published last November, is very kind and
How wrong they all were about him. was as well-adjusted as the lawyers and experts protect Venables new identity from becoming effectively exonerates all those involved, refusing
I sat through every gruelling minute of the claimed. Those experts will now realise it is known, but has been described to me by to judge them with hindsight. occurred to anyone, until it was too late. Such a in dread of it becoming public. I was able to
murder trial in late 1993, by then already highly likely that Venables had an interest in someone close to the case as a conspiracy Venables remained free for at least two years pattern of secrets and lies has, to some extent, piece together the events with information
over-familiar with the gruesome, tragic details, of lies that began to unravel when Venables while he pulled the wool over the eyes of almost defined Venables life. from high-level government officials who were
which I have lived with ever since. I had been started getting into trouble, at least two everyone, from the justice secretary downwards. In the course of my investigation I discovered closely involved, and former senior members
commissioned to write a book about the case years before he was discovered with child His minders during his release thought Venables that, not long before his release, Venables was of the Red Bank staff.
and went to Liverpool for the first time soon pornography. He, too, lied to people who ought was suffering delayed adolescence, that he was believed to have had sex with a female member The emergence of the apparent relationship
after the boys arrests. I remember seeing them to have seen through his deception. emotionally under-developed as a result of years of staff at Red Bank. The incident, inevitably, had was potentially highly damaging to Venables as
at the local magistrates court, all shaved heads His offender manager gave him money out of in captivity. One thought he was five years huge implications for the teenager and those he approached parole. The incident ought to
and shell suits. her own pocket when he claimed to be broke behind in age development. Like a lot of who had been charged with looking after him. have been reported immediately, triggering an
The case has haunted me over the years. It (it later turned out Venables was buying cocaine adolescents, he was hard to get to open up. Venables, around 17 at the time, was a vulnerable investigation, possibly even a police probe, into
was difficult not to become immersed in those and meow meow mephedrone), and went One probation officer noted he did not easily teenager in secure care and the staff member the abuse of power and breach of trust by the
events, appalled but gripped by what had round to play darts with Venables at his flat to share issues. It is quite difficult to get information was supposed to be responsible for him. Instead woman involved. Instead, a brief mention of the
happened, struggling to make sense of it, trying stave off his loneliness. She noted that he was on from him and this is not necessarily because he she was accused of sexual misconduct and relationship, tucked away in a regular written
to find out why two 10-year-olds would kill. the internet a lot. Unbeknown to her, he was also is resistant, but just because of the person that suspended. She never returned to work at review sent by Red Bank to the Home Office, was
During the trial everyone looked at the boys visiting Merseyside, breaking one of the key he is. What kind of person was that? Someone Red Bank. The scandal has been hidden for the first anyone outside the unit knew of it. When
24 and made simple judgments. Jon was sweet, conditions of his parole, which was to keep him with a secret? That idea does not seem to have more than a decade and many people have lived challenged, Red Bank denied trying to bury a 25

stm03024 4-5
24 The Sunday Times Magazine April 3, 2011 April 3, 2011 The Sunday Times Magazine 25 25/03/2011 18:45
 Cover Story

what had happened and claimed they had told Centre: with fellow
the Home Office earlier, in a phone call. bohemians Bianca
Red Bank was already in a state of turmoil Jagger and Andy
following recent management departures and a
three-yearly inspection earlier in 2000 by the
Social Services Inspectorate (SSI), which had
focused on failings and instability.

alcolm Stevens, formerly the home

M secretarys professional adviser for

children accused and convicted of
serious crimes, had been in charge of Thompson
and Venables care from 1993 to 1998. He
describes the SSI report on Red Bank as one of The scene of James
the worst he has ever read, and says it must have Bulgers murder in 1993.
put the unit under threat of closure. Perhaps that Below: The Sun reports
is why they tried to keep the allegations of sexual Jon Venables return to
misconduct quiet. jail in March last year
Because of the seriousness of the charge, and
the suggestion of either a cover-up by Red Bank
officials or incompetence at the Home Office,
Arthur de Frisching, a retired prison governor,
was called in by the Prison Service to find out DID THE INCIDENT AT RED BANK AFFECT HIS SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT?
what had really happened. Staff at Red Bank
claimed to have notified a named Home Office NO PROBLEM WITH SEX WAS MENTIONED
official about the suspected sexual liaison in a APART FROM THE FACT THAT EVERYONE IS SHOCKED HE IS A PAEDOPHILE
phone call on a specific day at a specific time.
However, the same official had kept a record of
his own, which showed he had been visiting a
prison that day HMP New Hall, Yorkshire of the empty staff residences at Red Bank, when incident. He insisted there hadnt, and suggested
and was out of contact when the call was she was supposed to be escorting him on a he had not referred to the alleged sexual
supposed to have been made. mobility exercise, walking in the grounds of misconduct in his report because it fell outside
It is a measure of how seriously the Prison the home. The incident is not referred to in any his terms of reference.
Service regarded the whole business that de psychiatric report about Venables I have seen. Omand never interviewed either Venables or
Frisching went to New Hall and checked the Was it ever raised in his sessions of therapy? his parents during his recent inquiry. He said it
visitors log, to confirm the official was telling the If it was buried, what effect lingered with was enough that he had access to Venables
truth. So was it a mistake or a deliberate Jon the delayed adolescent, five years behind police statements and to the evidence at his
deception by the staff at Red Bank? Senior Home in development? recent trial. But this surprising omission means
Office officials later went to a meeting with the How might having sex with a substitute that he never troubled to ask Venables himself
director of social services in St Helens and parent, as care staff are described, affect his why he thought things had gone so badly wrong
representatives of the SSI. There was no doubt in sexual development? Might it have had any in his life after release. There is no problem with
the minds of those who attended that there had bearing on his interest in child pornography? sex mentioned anywhere in the Omand report,
been a cover-up. Did the fact that the incident sat there, ignored apart from the fact that everyone is shocked
What exactly happened between and untreated, play its part in when Venables turns out to be a paedophile. It
Venables and the member of staff the post-release chaos that was not even clear that the parole board knew
was hard to ascertain. I was told overtook him? All that is about the allegation of sexual misconduct when
that a local inquiry into the event possible, though there is no they judged Venables fit for release in 2001, on
reached an inconclusive verdict mention of it anywhere in the the basis that the risk he posed was trivial.
as to what happened. Yet, it Omand report. I also put the allegations of sexual misconduct
seemed certain they did have When I contacted Sir David to the Ministry of Justice, but they did not
sex an incident of sexual Omand, he confirmed he was address them.
misconduct was confirmed aware of the allegations of sexual It is no exaggeration to say that the state
to me by five well-placed misconduct. I suggested that, has invested millions in the rehabilitation of
independent sources. surely, they were relevant to his Venables and Thompson. Nowadays, it costs
One former Red Bank report. He replied: You seem to around 200,000 a year to keep a child in secure
manager who was there at the be making a meal of this. care. Back then it was 100,000. The two boys
time understood that Venables I also asked him if there had were detained for eight years. Police spent
and the woman had sex in one been an official cover-up of the 278,000 looking after Venables in the first a 27

stm03027 6
April 3, 2011 The Sunday Times Magazine 27 25/03/2011 18:46
 Cover Story

year of his release. Venables was assigned his The abduction of James
own police unit as his new identity was prepared, Bulger (left) was caught
which supported him in his rst months of on CCTV (below)
freedom. It was there to protect him from those
who would do him harm out of revenge. The risk
to Venables and Thompson was constantly the secure units where they would be held every
assessed and always judged clear and credible. night for the next eight years: Robert Thompson
The would-be avengers were ever-reminded by at Barton Moss outside Manchester, and Jon
the continuing public presence of James Bulgers Venables in Vardy House, a small eight-bedded
mother, Denise Fergus, her unassuaged grief unit in Red Bank.
settled into an unblinking desire for the killers Every detail of the two boys lives was recorded
of her son to go on and on being punished. twice daily, on running sheets, each entry signed
Denise Bulger Mrs Fergus was then married by the member of staff who had written it. The
to Ralph Bulger was 25 years old when she notes were stored at the unit and copied to
went shopping in the Strand shopping precinct ofcials in Whitehall. I have been able to see
in Bootle, Merseyside, on some of those records
February 12, 1993, with and a selection of notes
her son, James, who was are made public here for
nearly three. It is another HE WAS TAUGHT TO HIDE HIS NOTORIETY AS THE BULGER KILLER. HE the rst time.
myth about the case that Here is the rst entry
she was actually out LIED ABOUT HIS NAME AND SEEMED IN A QUANDARY for Venables; the rst of
shoplifting. I have heard ABOUT HIS DATE OF BIRTH. WHERE WILL THIS DECEPTION END? what would eventually
that many times over the become more than 5,000
years, but it is just not notes: 22.02.93. When I
true. She was in the arrived for duty John [sic]
butchers shop AR Tyms, momentarily boys have always vehemently denied this. was just going to bed and was introduced to me
distracted, when Venables and Thompson Another myth is that there is a secret truth by *****. On her suggestion I took the boy up to
abducted James as he wandered by the open about how James Bulger died that has been his room after he had brushed his teeth and had
door. They were playing truant. kept back by the authorities. That too is wrong. a chat to him During our chat John introduced
I was only in the shop for a few seconds. Everything that was known about the murder me to Roland Rat, but I formed the impression he
I turned round and hed gone, said Denise. was disclosed at the trial. But that does not mean is overawed by the situation he nds himself in.
Come on baby, said Venables. They were there was no hidden sexual motive, which both From the start he was taught to lie, to hide his
famously caught on CCTV timecode: 15.42.32 boys would have had a vested interest in notoriety as the Bulger killer, even though, at that
Venables holding Jamess hand as they led him denying. As Dr Susan Bailey, who was Venables stage, his name was protected by a court order
through the precinct and out onto the canal tow psychiatrist until he reached the age of 21, and was not known to the public. On the advice
path, and then on a meandering walk around reported at the time of his parole: At no time of Red Bank staff, he at rst used to tell fellow
shops and into Walton village, a journey of during sessions has Jon presented with any residents he was a twocker (taking a car without
approximately 2 miles. With the police station prior or current abnormality in psychosexual the owners consent), instead of a murderer.
across the road in front of them and the steep development Visiting and revisiting the It was not long before some staff began to be
bank up to the railway line on their left, they issue with Jon as a child, and now as an concerned, as in this note: 24.06.93. When
hesitated. It was the last moment James Bulger adolescent, he gives no account of any sexual speaking to the dentist, Jon was asked his name
could have lived. They turned left. element to the offence. and date of birth. He lied as adults have taught
After they had been charged, both boys were him about his name and seemed in a quandary
he nal assault began with the throwing removed from the police cells where they had about his date of birth. He gave his real d of b
T of Humbrol paint and Duracell AA
batteries, which Venables and Thompson
been kept during questioning, and packed off to (are we to falsify medical records too?) Where
will this deception end?
had shoplifted earlier from the Strand. They The answer was it would never end. In fact,
threw stones and bricks, kicked and stamped on it would only intensify as Venables had a whole
James, and nally dropped a heavy iron bar, a new identity created for him, hurriedly, on his
railway shplate, on him. They buried his body release in 2001, and a new type of lie to contend
under some bricks so that the rst train to come with his legacy life, as Sir David Omand
along cut his body in two. called it in his recent report which was
At some point, James Bulgers trousers and supported by a thorough fabrication of
underpants were removed. There was some everything from passport and national insurance
TOP: BBC. BOTTOM: PA

inconclusive evidence that he might have number to GCSE certicates and, just as the Red
been sexually assaulted. The police believed that Bank staff member had presciently suggested, a
the batteries may have been inserted into his complete set of medical records. After his release,
bottom, but none were found there and both not even his GP knew his real identity. a 29

stm03029 7
April 3, 2011 The Sunday Times Magazine 29 25/03/2011 18:48
 Cover Story

he lies date back to 1993 when Venables

T first arrived at Red Bank. Staff who

worked there with him have told me
what a frightened little boy he was in the early
days, fearful at being removed from his family,
Left: demonstrators
fearful of the outside worlds reaction to what he
outside court in 1993 in
had done, afraid of being attacked or criticised
Bootle, Liverpool, after
by others and afraid of himself. He shared the
the arrest of 10-year-
common problems they would see at Red Bank
olds Jon Venables and
of low self-esteem and lack of self-belief.
Robert Thompson for the
Venables and Thompson were treated as
murder of James Bulger
special cases from the start. Even before their trial,
the need for long-term planning was clear. That
job fell to Malcolm Stevens, then the home Bulgers face with blood coming out his mouth. Red Bank, just as Ann Thompson always visited
secretarys adviser. Vardy House was a short-stay It was made all the worse by the fact that James her son, Robert, at Barton Moss. The notes on
remand unit, a halfway house for young people on had seemed to like Jon, he said, and had held his the running sheets record the approving
their way to court. Nobody was meant to stay hand and allowed him to pick him up during the comments of the staff at their support for Jon.
there more than a few weeks, but Venables ended journey to his death. He had, at times since, By the mid- to late-1990s Venables was said to
up staying there for eight years. That decision was imagined a baby James growing inside him, as if have completed his offence related work in
made by Stevens. He liked the unit and the he could make amends by giving rebirth to therapy and accepted what he had done. He
progress Jon made there, and seemingly James Bulger. It was a deeply affecting was reported to have become a model member
continued to make as time progressed. It was expression of remorse, but also a highly of the Red Bank community, but staff recall he
Stevens who put in place the ongoing, but not unnatural and disturbing image. always had difficulty relating to the other
weekly, sessions with the psychiatrist Dr Bailey. Jons parents, Susan and Neil, were a working- offenders, mostly in their mid-teens. At first he
The notes on the running sheets betray Jons class Liverpool couple. Neil had worked as a was too young for the others; later he was too
early obsessions: Hed play on his Nintendo all fork-lift truck driver and since been unemployed. old. Instead he would seek out the company of
day if he was allowed to and his many They had both been treated for depression and staff. Mixing with adults made him a
anxieties which could make him extremely were living apart at the time of the murder. knowledgeable fan of the Beatles, less tuned-in
difficult and demanding. How angry were the During the trial, many commentators considered to contemporary music.
people in Liverpool, he would ask. Did they still Susan and Neil highly respectable compared to Not long before Venables arrived at Red Bank
want to get him? He was it had been a more open
greatly traumatised by the care home where some
trial, which was held at staff lived with their
Preston Crown Court in VENABLES SUFFERED FLASHBACKS AND NIGHTMARES OVER THE YEARS. families on site. In the
October and November
1993, and concluded with HE IMAGINED A BABY JAMES GROWING INSIDE HIM, mid-1990s a former
member of staff, Peter
the boys conviction for AS IF HE COULD MAKE AMENDS BY GIVING REBIRTH TO HIM Threlfall, was arrested
murder and their names over an allegation of
being released into the indecent exposure in St
public domain. Helens and disclosed
Sir David Omand, in his recent report, notes the Thompsons, much as they always regarded that he had sexually abused a number of Red
the difficulties created by that decision of the Jon as the more innocent of the pair, led astray by Banks young residents. In late 1997 he pleaded
trial judge, Michael Morland. Malcolm Stevens the thuggish Robert. But these were simple and guilty using his full name, Thomas Peter
says it must be the worst decision of Morlands misleading caricatures. Threlfall to 22 offences of indecent assault,
career. It certainly had a profound impact on the Sometime after the trial, I was approached by attempted indecent assault and gross indecency,
case, and created the need for protection from a relative of Susan Venables who told me some and early the following year was given a seven-
the public for Venables and Thompson that will hair-raising stories of the carnage that could year prison sentence.
likely last the rest of their lives. They can never result from drinking and fighting within her Threlfall left Red Bank only months before
stop looking over their shoulders. family. Many of them had been in a show-band Venables arrived, but such was the scale and
Venables lawyers have described how the that performed at clubs in and around seriousness of his offences that their effect, still
naming of him by the judge greatly added to his Merseyside. They would drink heavily, often secret, must have lingered well into the regime of
punishment, and how his entire adolescence was leave children unattended, I was told, and take Venables time at the unit, along with some of the
haunted by fears of reprisals. He had suffered their arguments on stage. On one occasion one victims. While Venables was there, the deputy
post-traumatic stress disorder over both the relative, a guitarist, had smashed the neck of his head, Nigel Print, was accused of sexual
offence itself and the trial, and had experienced guitar into the mouth of another relative, a harassment of female colleagues. It was alleged
flashbacks and nightmares over the years, and woman, in the middle of a performance. that, as the homes recruitment officer, he picked
persistent anguish. In one flashback he would The murder case brought Neil and Susan back out women he thought attractive and sought
their company and more when they a
REX

relive the scene at the railway line, seeing James together and they were a constant presence at 31

stm03031 8
April 3, 2011 The Sunday Times Magazine 31 25/03/2011 18:48
 Cover Story

got the job. He left in the late 1990s following Venables progress told me how he remembered In spite of the obstacles, all the reports were
specific allegations against him. His boss, Phil a kind of complacency at those Red Bank favourable at first. Even though Venables was
Hoyland, also left in difficult circumstances in meetings about Venables, and how he had now considered low risk, he was actually treated as if
1999, after claims of misconduct were made dealt with the crime and all the focus was on he was high risk because of the seriousness and
against him highly disputed by him and his good work and readiness for release. How uniqueness of the case. This seemed to justify
unrelated to sexual impropriety. By 2000, could it possibly be, when Venables had the massive bureaucracy: Venables had direct
when Venables parole was approaching, committed one of the worst crimes of the weekly supervision with his probation officer
the place appears to have been in turmoil, last century as a 10-year-old boy, that everything (later known as offender manager) who reported
following the sudden departure of two leaders, was now okay? The official would often try to upwards to the local Multi-Agency Public
leaving a succession of temporary heads to direct the meetings to consider the offence, or its Protection Panel (MAPPP), who reported
take turns in charge. lasting effect on Venables. But nobody else upwards to the National Management Board (set
seemed interested. up especially for Thompson and Venables) who
alcolm Stevens remembered an Malcolm Stevens had left the Home Office in reported upwards daily at first, then weekly
M incident that occurred during Robert
Thompsons time at Barton Moss,
1998, but he continued to work in youth justice
and was fast becoming a leading consultant in
to the home secretary.
Malcolm Stevens was appalled when he read
where another young offender was caught the field. He was surprised and disappointed, of this setup (which was entirely secret until it
leaving the room of a female member of staff reading the Omand report, to discover that the was disclosed in the Omand report). You could
during the night, when he ought to have been final preparations for Venables release had still not manage cases by committee. As Stevens said,
locked up. Stevens was quickly informed and been going on after his release date. Venables everyone was covering their backs, more
caught the first train to deal openly with the lived semi-independently in a flat (one of the old concerned about the potential fallout from
fallout. The member of staff left immediately staff houses converted especially for him) for negative publicity about this most sensitive of
and there was a thorough inquiry into how and eight months after his formal release in June cases, than anything else.
why it had happened something that notably 2001. According to Omand, the Home Office had Stevens was horrified to read that the
did not happen later with Venables when the belatedly realised, a month earlier, that Venables bureaucrats had deliberately not told the local
details of his alleged encounter with a member would need a new identity: There was some director of social services that he had Jon
of staff emerged. scrambling to catch up. Venables living on his patch. Venables had
Because I have been involved with the Bulger A lifelong injunction protecting the boys new murdered a child and that categorised him as
case for so long I have remained well connected identities from being disclosed in the media had a Schedule One offender, subject to the closest
to some of those involved, but even so there has been imposed that January by the high-court scrutiny for the protection of other children by
always been an unease and nervousness among judge Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss. That was no social services. Instead, they did not even know
many lawyers and officials about discussing the surprise to anyone involved in the case it had he was there, not at first anyway. So when
details openly. Never more so than in this
instance. I kept thinking, some men would clap
a young man on the back and tell him how lucky
he was, having sex with an older woman. YOU COULD NOT MANAGE CASES BY COMMITTEE. AS MALCOLM STEVENS SAID,
But others would know the truth: that it could
have hurt and harmed him as much as any other EVERYONE WAS COVERING THEIR BACKS,
form of abuse. CONCERNED ABOUT THE POTENTIAL FALLOUT FROM NEGATIVE PUBLICITY
In many ways, the year 2000 must have been a
strange and difficult time for Venables. Lawyers
had succeeded in setting aside the 15-year tariff
(the minimum sentence) imposed by the former always been a likely necessity, mainly to protect Venables began a relationship with a woman
home secretary Michael Howard back in 1993, them from the public. But four months later it with a five-year-old child, and kept it a secret
and the Lord Chief Justice was about to set a new was still a surprise to the Home Office. Theyd from his supervisor for seven months, nobody
one. When he first arrived at Red Bank, Jon had actually had eight years to prepare. Yet Venables knew. If social services had known about
been the only boy of primary-school age there, was so ill-prepared that he had never been to a Venables, they would have been concerned for
and a special teacher had been assigned to work cinema, shopped for clothes or been on a bus by the safety of the child.
with him, in one-on-one lessons in an unused himself. That did not exactly enhance his Venables claimed he had never met the child.
room in Vardy House, which for a long time was chances of success in the big, wide world. But who knows whether he was telling the truth?
the boundary of Jons world. When, in March 2002, he began living Was he already, by then, cruising the internet for
A close bond formed between them after independently, the authorities had already images of child sex? There is no evidence that
seven years. In June 2000 the teacher died considered and dismissed relocating him anyone interviewed Venables girlfriend after
suddenly of a heart attack, aged 50. Jon was said abroad, and considered and dismissed placing their relationship was disclosed. Was her child
to have wanted to attend the funeral but was not him with a foster family which again raises the safe and unharmed? Nobody seemed troubled to
allowed. No doubt this teacher was a significant question of where his own family were when find out. Instead, the committees sat around
substitute parent to Jon and the unresolved they had remained at the centre of his life all considering whether they had a duty to tell a
grief must have affected him. A Home Office through his years of detention. I have heard they future Venables girlfriend of his true identity.
official involved in the regular reviews of were excluded from the parole planning. They could not just erase his criminal a 33

stm03033 9
April 3, 2011 The Sunday Times Magazine 33 25/03/2011 18:49
 Cover Story

record, or entirely disguise the link between Management Board (NMB) discussed Venables subjected to a curfew. The general feeling was
his old self and his new self. continual worries about money and fear of that these offences were typical for people of
A routine CRB check nowadays a regular exposure, and his increasing social isolation. his age. But of course, there was nothing typical
requirement for many jobs, to protect fellow staff They heard how his offender manager had given about Venables and, as it turned out, and really
and the public of Venables new identity would him 30 from her own pocket. She was warned ought to have been recognised straight away as a
have exposed who he really was. So he was never to do that again a highly unprofessional strong possibility, this was just the tip of the
encouraged to avoid jobs where a CRB check act, according to Malcolm Stevens, albeit done iceberg. He was definitely already viewing child
was required. As Omand said, this limited his out of sympathy. The NMB reacted to the pornography by this time. His offender manager,
opportunities to unskilled work and further concerns by deciding it no longer needed to meanwhile, suggested going to play badminton
fostered a life of deceit. meet regularly. (a game Venables had learnt at Red Bank) and
And yet, ironically, the more he seemed to be It was in this period of reduced supervision playing darts in his flat. How lonely and isolated
heading for trouble, the more the bureaucrats that Venables problems became serious. Even he must have been.
expressed pleasure with his progress and now, nobody knows the full story. Quite when he He soon admitted he had lied to disguise
downgraded his supervision. It seems, looking began drinking to excess, taking drugs, looking the extent of his drug use. His offender manager
back, that they made terrible errors of judgment. at child pornography, is not known. By January said it was probably just to relieve the tedium
He turned 21 in August 2003 and Dr Bailey, his 2008, Venables was 25 and he had a new of his life. Again, the problem was being
clinical psychiatrist since the age of 10, signed off offender manager, who visited his flat and minimised and a terrible ongoing crime
missed as a result. Venables had a one-hour
psychiatric assessment. The psychiatrist
concluded they did not need to see him again
WHEN THE OFFENDER MANAGER MET ANOTHER GIRLFRIEND OF VENABLES and he did not require medication for depression
or anything else.
AND SHE TURNED OUT TO BE JUST 17, He faced eviction for rent arrears and court
THERE WERE CONCERNS THAT YOUNG GIRLFRIENDS WERE PART OF A PATTERN action for unpaid council tax. His offender
manager noted: It is apparent he is not being
totally honest with me regarding the issues he
faces regarding his finances. He is burying his
saying he now needed an adult psychiatrist. She observed it was like a teenagers bedroom, with head in the sand, the offender manager said.
warned he still feared being found by people clothing, food cartons etc all over the floor. The That, of course, was precisely what all his
intent on revenge and she reminded his watchers offender manager reported: He spends a great layers of supervisors were doing too: burying
of the abnormal circumstances of his deal of leisure time on the PlayStation and on the their heads in the sand, not pausing to
psychosexual development. internet playing games not sure of the consider what else Venables might be up to.
The MAPPP committee found an adult significance of this as yet Im not certain what He was going to Merseyside, taking drugs, and
psychiatrist, but then decided it was not games he is playing. collecting and distributing child pornography.
necessary for them to meet or work directly with He had also visited a social-networking site
Venables because of his low risk. Or was it high is first arrest came that September. pretending to be a woman with a child and
risk? The decision appears to have contravened
the home secretarys personal condition on H He was in a drink-fuelled fight outside
a nightclub in the small hours. He
talked online with a convicted paedophile.
As Omand wrote, there is probably more to
Venables parole licence that he and Thompson claimed he was acting in self-defence and the that story as well.
continue regular clinical supervision. charges were later dropped. Recall was It was on February 22, 2010, that Venables
By spring 2004, the warning signs were there. considered and quickly dismissed a big called his offender manager to report his fear
Venables was struggling with his studies and mistake, according to Stevens. He has no axe that his identity had been compromised. The
finances. As Malcolm Stevens points out, there is to grind, is not interested in the wisdom of offender manager called the police and Venables
no indication he had ever been prepared to hindsight, only poor decision-making. I know took a hammer and a screwdriver to his hard
manage money. A year later he had dropped out from our many conversations that Stevens cares drive. You can imagine how desperate he must
of college, left his flat because of debts and was about what happened to Venables and feels he have been. The game was nearly up. Visiting him
struggling to find work. In spite of all the help was let down repeatedly by those charged with in prison soon after his recall, his offender
that ought to have been available, his descent his care. So far as Stevens is concerned, manager found him relieved and feeling safe.
into chaos and criminality had begun. Venables knew what was at stake and ought to He was sentenced to two years for the child
When the offender manager met another have been recalled to prison straight away, if pornography offences and will become eligible
girlfriend of Venables and she turned out to be only temporarily. for parole again this summer. I wonder, who is
just 17 Venables was by now in his mid- Even Omand agrees that this was a missed ever going to take the decision to release him?
twenties there were concerns as to whether opportunity to pre-empt the more serious How will anyone ever cut through the lies and
young girlfriends were part of a pattern with problems ahead. Venables agreed to go on an deceptions and get to the truth about Jon
him. It is not hard to see what kind of pattern alcohol-awareness course. Three months later, Venables? He has probably forgotten or buried
was being imagined. But it was concluded that he was stopped and searched and caught in the truth himself s
he was just having a delayed adolescence. Once possession of a small amount of cocaine. Again, David James Smith is the author of The Sleep of
34 again, there was no cause for alarm. The National recall was considered and dismissed. He was Reason: The James Bulger Case

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34 The Sunday Times Magazine April 3, 2011 25/03/2011 18:49