Toddler James Bulgerās vile killer Jon Venables has launched yet another bid for freedom, but his brave mum Denise has vowed to fight to keep him behind bars for the sickening crime…
A custody picture of Jon Venables, one of the child killers of toddler James Bulger, who is once again bidding for parole.(Image: PA)
The mum of tragicĀ James BulgerĀ has told how she will demand to be at her sonās killerās upcoming parole hearing to ālook him in the eyes and remind him Iām still hereā.
Brave Denise Fergus, whose son James was kidnapped and brutally killed in 1993, hopes her presence in Jon VenablesāĀ parole hearingĀ will help remind a panel of the impact of his crimes and keep him off the streets. It came as it emerged as that vile Venables, who has twice reoffended since killing James, had applied for parole and if successful could be free by the end of the year.
Brave Denise Fergus, whose son James was kidnapped and brutally killed in 1993, has vowed to keep Venables off the streets.
Speaking exclusively to theĀ Mirror, Denise said: āThis is mental torture for me. It was only December 2023 that his application was denied as he was not deemed fit for society. What has changed? He has a lifelong record of reoffending. When will we ever get respite from this? It makes it all flood back.ā
On using new laws allowing victimsā families to apply to attend parole hearings, Denise said: āI will do whatever it takes to sit in that hearing, look him in the eye and remind him that we are still here, we havenāt forgiven, and we will never give up. I also want any parole board to realise that this person has not changed and that I believe he will kill again if he is given any kind of freedom.ā
Just last month, it was announced that new laws that allow victims of crime or their families to apply to go to criminalsā parole hearings are to be rolled out across England Wales, which could pave the way for Denise to attend the crunch summit later this year. Denise revealed how she and husband Stuart met justice secretaryĀ Shabana MahmoodĀ for the first time last month to impress her concerns about Venablesā potential release.

James was only two when he was murdered(Image: PA)
She was reassured that despite Venables currently being in prison for one of two child sex image offences he has committed since Jamesā murder, he will be treated as āa Category A prisonerā. Denise, who lives in Merseyside with Stuart, said: āThe level of threat that they hold him at encourage me slightly but I have been burnt so many times before by promises from previous politicians.
āThe justice secretary seemed to be taking it very seriously and promised to keep in close touch with us about the upcoming parole proceedings. We should get a letter any day now to say that it has formally started. For us, we had just started to get back to some kind of normality, being able to enjoy the family and normal things without the spectre of the prospect he could be released. But now, we are thrown back into battle mode. We should not have to keep going through this. He should never be released or even considered for parole.ā
Little James Bulger was just two years old when he was abducted from a Merseyside shopping centre on 12 February, 1993. Two schoolboys, both aged 10, led the toddler out of the Strand shopping centre in Bootle while his mother, Denise Fergus, was paying for shopping at a butchers.
Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were truanting from school that day and had spent most of it hanging round the centre. An image of the boys caught on CCTV was released and became infamous with the case which shocked the nation.

The funeral of James Bulger at the Sacred Heart Church in Kirkby, Merseyside. His dad Ralph Bulger is pictured carry the coffin on March 1, 1993.(Mirrorpix)
CCTV also showed a frantic Denise desperately looking for her child. Thompson and Venables had led James two and a half miles to a railway track where they beat him to death. The killers served just eight years in a young offendersā institute before being released on licence in 2001 when they were 18 years old.
Venables has reoffended twice over child abuse images and Denise has campaigned tirelessly to keep him in jail. In December 2023, the parole board ruled he was unfit to be released in a victory for Jamesā mum.



