James Bulger killer Jon Venables’ own lawyer says anonymity has been wasted on him and it should be lifted
JAMES Bulger killer Jon Venables’ former lawyer says his anonymity should be lifted after he admitted having more than 1,000 indecent images of children.
Laurence Lee represented 10-year-old Venables after his arrest for the abduction and brutal murder of two-year-old James in Liverpool in February 1993.
Along with fellow murderer Robert Thompson, he was given a new identity and granted lifelong anonymity when he was freed in 2001 but has been sent back to prison after his latest offence.
Mr Lee, who represented Venables until he was jailed in 1994, has now backed James’ dad Ralph Bulger’s calls to unmask the killer. He told Good Morning Britain: “I have every sympathy with the Bulger family and if I were in their shoes I would be clamouring as loudly as they are for his anonymity (to be lifted).
“He’s had his chances, he’s committed two very, very serious sets of offences and anonymity has been wasted on him a lot of people would say.
“As a boring lawyer that has to be balanced – because there’s a difference between being a decent human being sometimes and having to look at it through a lawyer’s eyes – if there was no anonymity we would be returning to the mob rule scenes that we faced outside Bootle Juvenile Court back in February 1993.
“That is why in all probability his anonymity will not be lifted but I have every sympathy for anybody who says that it should be.”
Also speaking on the programme, the Bulger’s former Family Liaison Officer Mandy Waller agreed Venables anonymity should ‘possibly’ be lifted, adding: “It’s very doubtful it will be lifted, they’re going to take the view they have to safeguard Venables, which is sad really.”
Mr Bulger has called Venables’ new secret identity a “failed experiment” and claimed the authorities have been unable to stop him being a danger to others.
Remembering his first encounters with Venables at Lower Lane Police Station in Liverpool in 1993, Mr Lee said the killer was clearly capable of evil.
Could a lifetime anonymity order be overturned?
Jon Venables and Robert Thompson had lifetime anonymity orders granted by the High Court in 2001.
Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss said there was “the real possibility of serious physical harm and possibly death from vengeful members of the public and from the Bulger family”.
The pair were given new identities and the injunction means no pictures or details can be published which could identify them. If an order is overturned it is believed it would be the first time it has happened in UK legal history.
A case is likely to be heard by the High Court later this year following Venables’ latest conviction and lawyers representing the Bulger family will argue the order needs to be reassessed given the nature of his offending.
For the injunction to be lifted the court would have to be satisfied Venables is no longer at risk of physical harm as a result of his identity being made public.
Lady Butler-Sloss has given interviews since the injunction stating she believes both Venables and Thompson would still be targeted and potentially murdered.
It is extremely rare for criminals to be given new identities and the measures has been used just a handful of times in the UK.
He said: “When I first set eyes on him in the cell he looked like an eight-year-old… very polite, very respectful like his mum was and I thought ‘well he can’t possibly be involved in something as evil and heinous as this’.
“Indeed when the first interview took place you would have never thought he was involved he was such a convincing little liar.
“It was only in subsequent interviews it was clear he’d been lying and of course when he was found out he broke into hysterical tears and was hugging his mum and hugging the officers – it was then I realised he was capable of this awful, heinous crime.”
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