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Pair who revealed identity of James Bulger’s killer face court

Jan 31, 2019

Jon Venables (pictured) and Robert Thompson have been living under new identities for decades after murdering James Bulger. Source: Getty

Two people who revealed the secret identity of James Bulger’s killer Jon Venables have been spared jail after attending proceedings at the High Court in the United Kingdom on Thursday.

The 28-year-old and 26-year-old each received suspended jail sentences after admitting they breached an injunction designed to protect Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, according to UK publication The Evening Standard. Venables and Thompson were just 10 years old when they brutally murdered toddler Bulger in 1993. The pair lured James away from a Liverpool shopping centre he’d been visiting with his mother and killed him.

Two decades ago, an original order was made to protect the two killers, giving them lifelong anonymity after they were found guilty of the murder. The court order is still in place in England and Wales and strictly prohibits the publication of anything that reveals the true identity of Bulger’s killers.

Both men have been living under new identities for decades, something Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC said was intended to not only protect Venables and Thompson, but also innocent people who could be wrongly identified as them.

It is believed the two people involved in the identity breach had posted material online in relation to Venables’ latest identity.

Bulger’s mother Denise Fergus has previously spoken about her desire for her son’s killers’ identity to remain anonymous, explaining in 2018 that revealing the information now they’re grown up would lead to “vigilante action and innocent people being hurt”.

The toddler’s devastated father Ralph and uncle previously launched High Court proceedings calling for the lifelong anonymity granted to Venables to be lifted.

“I understand the motivation for the application, but my concern is that if Venables were known by his own name, it could lead to vigilante action and innocent people being hurt,” Fergus said in a statement read in court last year. “Beyond that, I have no further comment to make.”

The latest news comes after both of Bulger’s parents expressed outrage after a film documenting the death of their beloved son was given an Oscar nod. The 30-minute movie called Detainment, by Irish director Vincent Lambe, was made without consultation or the approval of her family.

“I cannot express how disgusted and upset I am that this so-called film has been made and now nominated for an Oscar,” Fergus said in a statement posted on Twitter.

“It’s one thing making a film like this without contacting or getting permission from James’s family but another to have a child re-enact the final hours of James’s life before he was brutally murdered and making myself and my family have to relive this all over again.”

This is all I want to say at present. pic.twitter.com/GbyshtVoa9

— Denise Fergus (@Denise_fergus) January 22, 2019

Meanwhile, Bulger’s father claimed the film is too sympathetic to the boys who took his child’s life. A change.org petition calling for the film’s ban has attracted more than 240,000 signatures.