Bulger killer Jon Venables 'unmasked by photos circulating on the internet'

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated: 06:25 EST, 4 May 2011

Unmasked: Photos purportedly showing Bulger killer Jon Venables as an adult have surfaced on the internet

Photos that allegedly expose the identity of Jon Venables, the killer of Jamie Bulger, are being circulated on the internet.

The pictures apparently show Venables as an adult and were taken before his re-arrest and subsequent jailing on child pornography charges last year.

Also being passed around online are his alleged personal details, including information specifically banned to protect Venables' identity.

The photos and information were published last week by an online campaigner, who said he took the step to protect the public from the convicted killer and paedophile.

They have since spread to other websites and can be accessed across the world. They have already been viewed by more than one million people.

Venables, now 28, has a court order protecting his identity for life - granted by a judge in 2001 to help one of Britain's most notorious child killers re-integrate back into society.

The alleged 'outing' of Venables' new identity comes just weeks before he is eligible for parole after he was jailed for possessing child pornography.

The founder of the site which first published the photos, who cannot be named because of the injunction, told The Sun newspaper: 'The picture has now been seen by millions.

'I don't believe Jon Venables or any convicted sex offender has the right to anonymity or a protected identity. It is the public that needs protection.'

James's father Ralph welcomed the apparent exposing of his son's killers. 'I've always said the public should know what Venables and Thompson look like,' he said.

Venables and Robert Thompson were just ten years old when they lured two-year-old James Bulger from a Merseyside shopping centre and tortured him to death in 1993.

Denise Fergus, pictured outside court during Jon Venables' child pornography trial, believes the identity of her son's killer should be revealed

Despite warnings they could never be rehabilitated and objections from James's parents, they were released in 2001 and given new identities.

Just last month Denise Fergus, James's mother, had called for Venables and Thompson to be unmasked.

Miss Fergus spoke about her fight for justice for her son after it was revealed that the pair had both been on foreign holidays.

Her view is that his new identity should be released and when he stood to answer child pornography charges he should have done so under his new name.

Venables was jailed for two more years in February last year for possessing child porn - including images of children as young as two.

The fact that he is now asking for parole after being sent to jail, Miss Fergus said, rubs salt in her wounds all over again. He has blown any chance of any form of forgiveness, she added.