James Bulger killer Jon Venables 'back in prison after being caught with child abuse images'

One of the killers of toddler James Bulger has been arrested and put back in prison after police caught him with child abuse images, it has been reported.

Officers are said to have found the images on the computer of Jon Venables, 35, earlier in November, after which he was taken to a category A jail for breaching the terms of his life licence, the Sun reported.

He and his friend Robert Thompson were given life sentences for the torture and murder of the two-year-old in 1993 that shocked the country.

The pair were aged 10 when they snatched the toddler from his mother's hand in Bootle, Merseyside, took him along a canal towpath, battered him and left him on a railway line to be run over by a train.

Venables, who has not yet been charged for the new alleged offences, had been caught in 2010 with child abuse images and convicted of downloading and distributing the images, but was freed on parole in July 2013.

He and Thompson were controversially given lifetime anonymity. The Sun said that up to £5m has been spent on his rehabilitation, which included creating new identities, monitoring and prison and court costs.

A source told the paper that Venables' return to jail was "a huge blow to those who have championed the efforts to reform him over the past 25 years.

"Every expense has been afforded him, every expert opinion offered, every opportunity given. And yet here we are again and by anyone's standards, the question has now to be asked whether he has finally run out of chances."

If charged, he may have to face another Crown Court case, although his identity would be protected by appearing via video link.

In July 2013, James' father, Ralph Bulger, called on Venables to be jailed for life as "he will always be a danger to children."