GettyJon Venables wants to be freed from prison for Christmas as he admits to ‘battling’ depression.
Venables, who is currently serving a three-year sentence for collecting child pornography, is infamous for having killed two-year-old James Bulger with Robert Thompson when they were both just 10 years old.
In November last year, Venables was sentenced to 40 months in prison at the Old Bailey, when his collection of 1,000 indecent images of children and babies was found along with a ‘paedophile manual’.
A source told the Daily Star that Venables has applied for temporary leave over the festive period and that he was anxious to get away from the other inmates.
Their source said:
He will apply for Christmas leave and early parole – anything to get himself away from other inmates.
Prisoners who are coming to the end of their sentence or inmates who are not considered a risk to the public are often released on a temporary licence over Christmas.
GettyVenables may not get his wish however as the British Government says a prison ‘won’t release someone if it thinks they’re a risk to the public or may commit more crime’.
The Daily Star reports that Venables is suffering from anxiety and depression. He allegedly spends his days hiding in his cell where he’s monitored by a special team of guards.
Last year Venables admitted to possessing child abuse images and the ‘paedophile manual’. The court reportedly heard that he had 1,170 indecent photos of children including 392 category A images.
GettyThe sentencing judges said the images Venables had downloaded were ‘vile’ and ‘heartbreaking’. He added that the case was ‘unique’ because of Venables’ ‘brutal murder and torture’ of James Bulger.
Venables and his accomplice Robert Thompson murdered James Bulger on 12 February 1993, when he was just two years old.
The two boys led James away from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle when his mother momentarily took her eyes off him.
Over the next few hours, Venables and Thompson brutally tortured James before he eventually succumbed to his numerous injuries.
Venables and Thompson left his mutilated body on a railway line in the hopes that a train would hit the body and his death would be thought an accident. His body was discovered two days after his murder.
Thompson and Venables were charged with abducting and murdering Bulger on February 20, 1993 after police discovered evidence connecting the pair to the crime scene.
GettyThe judge recommended that the boys be sentenced to a minimum of eight years and both were released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years for the toddler’s murder.
Controversially the pair were granted lifelong anonymity and given new identities.
Venables, however, broke his parole in 2010 when he was discovered to be downloading child pornography. He was jailed for a further two years before being granted parole again in July 2013.
When Venables was sentenced last November James Bulger’s mum Denise Fergus branded him a ‘vile, perverted psychopath’.
However, she later said she no longer has the energy to be angry anymore and instead focuses her efforts into looking after her surviving sons.
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More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.