Petition calling for public inquiry into murder of James Bulger has more than 180,000 signatures

Issue will not be considered for a debate in Parliament

Jon Venables was ten when he killed two-year-old James Bulger

On the eve of the 25 year anniversary of James Bulger’s murder a petition calling for a public inquiry into the killing has more than 180,000 signatures.

It has broken the important 100,000 figure which means it will be considered for a debate in Parliament.

The petition states there are a “number of issues that have been swept under the carpet” and also questions why experts had believed that Venables has been rehabilitated.

Denise Fergus, James’s mother, has taken to Twitter to urge people to sign the petition.

The two-year-old was abducted by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson who were both ten-years-old at the time.

CCTV images showed James being led away by the duo while his mother was in a butcher’s shop at a shopping centre.

Venables and Thompson took James to a railway line, tortured and sexually assaulted him, before leaving him on the railway line to be hit by the train.

His body was discovered two days later.

After serving eight years they were both released and given new identities. Thompson has not reoffended since and is believed to have settled down with a long-term partner.

In 2010, nine years after being released Venables was back in jail after admitting to downloading and distributing indecent images of children.

After spending two years in prison, he was released, to then be recalled to prison in 2017 after allegedly being caught with indecent images of children again.

In 2018 he was jailed for 40 months after he admitted to possessing more than 1,000 indecent images of children, which he claimed was because he had “stupid urges” and was “inquisitive”.