Case Against Venables Builds

Fri, 19 March 2010 Courtesy of: Sun Online

Armed police gave James Bulger killer Jon Venables just five minutes to pack before taking him away for questioning yesterday.

The child killer was seized in a dawn swoop as he lay in his prison bed.

Venables, 27, faces a fresh grilling over child porn allegations that saw him recalled to jail this month.

“Mr Starmer has shown determination to prosecute high-profile cases,”

Nine officers, some with handguns, put him in the back of a waiting unmarked car.

Venables, in grey jogging bottoms and a brown sweatshirt, was said to have looked "dazed" at the speed of the operation.

A source said "Two police cars arrived at 6am. One parked next to the isolation unit where Venables was held.

"He was given five minutes to get dressed and put his stuff into a bag. He was gone within 20 minutes. It was very slickly organised."

Armed officers were deployed because of security risks surrounding Venables.

A police source said "He has the highest profile of any prisoner in Britain. Moving him from a secure cell into the public domain is a security nightmare."

Police probing the allegations are trying to establish how any suspect images may have been obtained.

Venables was said to have been in possession of category four child pornography - one level below the most depraved sort.

Senior detectives have sought advice from the Crown Prosecution Service's Special Crime Division, which handles the most sensitive cases. Once the inquiry is complete, cops will pass a file to the CPS.

The decision on whether to prosecute is so sensitive it will lie personally with Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer.

He will weigh up if there is enough evidence and if it is in the public interest.

A senior legal source said "The DPP will have conversations with the Attorney General. But the final decision lies with him alone."

Mr Starmer has shown determination to prosecute high-profile cases, including the three MPs and a peer charged over expenses.

Venables and Robert Thompson were ten when they murdered James, two, in Liverpool in 1993.

They were freed on licence with new identities in 2001.

Child porn carries a sentence of up to ten years. But if convicted, Venables could face life for breaching his licence terms.