Jon Venables has been moved to a new jail and given another identity after fellow inmates put a price on his head.
Venables, who tortured and killed two-year-old James Bulger in 1993, at the age of 10, is costing taxpayers tens of thousands with the latest relocation.
The move follows reports stating inmates in nearby cells had circulated a banned phototgraph of Venables using illegal mobiles, and put a price on his head.
The threat to Venables’ life was seen as so great, reports suggest, he has been urged to stay as anonymous as possible by prison authorities.
A source told the Mirror:
He’s also been told to try to keep a low profile. He has to be handled very carefully at all times because there are so many people who want to get at him.
He has been told to tell the other inmates that he’s inside for a different offence to try to conceal who he really is.
Jon Venables and Robert Thompson (pictured above) were both 10 when they abducted, tortured and killed two-year-old James Bulger in 1993, after abducting him from a shopping centre in Bootle, Liverpool.
They were released on licence eight years later, granted lifelong anonymity and given new identities, but Venables was jailed again for two years in 2010 after he was found with a hoard of child abuse images, described as ‘vile’ by the sentencing judge.
Since, James’ father, Ralph Bulger, has called for his anonymity to be lifted:
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The tragic case of Jamie Bulger is imprinted in the collective mind of the nation. In 1993, the two 10-year-old boys led Bulger along a canal and down a towpath before battering him with an iron bar.
They poured paint into his eyes, stoned him and hit him with bricks before leaving him on a railway line to be hit by a train.
After the two child killers served their time, a decision was made to spend £5 million on rehabilitation for the convicts and to protect the identities of Venables and Thompson.
On February 12, Ralph told Good Morning Britain:
The extent of what they done to James, you’ve got to look at it to see how sick they really are.
It doesn’t come out, exactly what they did to him. They tell you a bit, which is a little bit of quite a lot…
Ralph has claimed the full extent of his son’s injuries were never revealed:
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The still grieving father said people deserve to know the identity of the killer because you ‘wouldn’t want this person living next door’ and to ensure nobody else was ‘at risk’.
James’ mother, Denise Fergus, 50, was left distraught this month after her plea for a public inquiry into his continued offending was rejected.
Referring to his civil claims and judicial reviews, Fergus said:
Releasing Venables was a massive mistake. Both of them should have served time in an adult prison.
I want to know on what basis the parole board considered they were rehabilitated and whether they were aware of the sexual abuse James suffered?
After all the money that’s been spent on him, he’s laughing at us. He can get away with whatever he wants.
Meanwhile, it is claimed Venables is being protected by six prison guards amid fears that he could be attacked again.
He was discreetly driven to another prison under guard last week.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.