James Bulger’s killer Jon Venables will remain in prison after telling a Parole Board panel that he should stay behind bars.

Venables was just 10 years old when he murdered two-year-old James in Merseyside, alongside fellow 10-year-old Robert Thompson.

Venables and Thompson led James away from a shopping centre, which he was visiting with his mother, and tortured him by kicking him, stomping on him, and inserting batteries into his mouth.

They then dropped a piece of heavy railway track onto his head, fracturing his skull in 10 places, before laying his body across the tracks and leaving him there.

The two boys were found guilty of abduction and murder and sentenced to indefinite detention.

Both were released on a life licence in 2001, at the age of 18, but Venables was sent to prison again in 2010 for possessing indecent images of children.

He was paroled in 2013, but jailed again in 2017 for the same offence.

An earlier bid for parole, in 2020, also failed.

Venables, now 44, told parole staff dealing with his latest review – which took place in private – that he was not seeking release.

A summary of the panel’s findings, published on Monday, said: “At the outset of the hearing, Mr Venables submitted an opening statement to the effect that he accepted the need to undertake further offending work in custody and so was not seeking release.”

The panel considered evidence from probation officers based in the prison and in the community, three psychologists, and a psychiatrist, and all bar one found that he should remain in prison.

James’s mother, Denise Fergus, earlier called for the parole hearing to be held in public to help combat “misinformation” about the case which had a “retraumatising impact” on her.

Parole Board hearings are usually held in private, but they can be made public “in the interests of justice”.

But the Parole Board denied that request, saying that a public hearing would make it “very difficult for Jon Venables to give evidence” because he could be “being listened to by people who are seeking to get information so that they can kill him”.

In the latest review, a “victim personal statement which clearly conveyed the devastating impact of Mr Venables’ crime and the impact of his offending” was heard by the panel.

Members found that there were concerns about how well Venables would work with probation staff if released and “how open and honest he would be in supervision”.

They said there is “a need for further work in custody to address his sexual interests”.

The summary went on: “Mr Venables articulated his protracted and extreme remorse for his crime. Professionals assessed this to be genuine and sincere.”

Panel members decided that they were “not satisfied that Mr Venables was suitable for release”.

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