Jon Venables pictured in 1993
Jon Venables pictured in 1993

KEY POINTS

  • Child murderer sentenced to 40 months for possessing 1,000 child abuse images.
  • Also found to have document on how to "safely" have sex with small children.
  • Venables jailed in 1994 at age of 10 for torturing and murdering toddler.

John Venables, one of the killers of two-year-old Jamie Bulger, has been jailed for 40 months after admitting possessing more than 1,000 of images of child abuse.

Venables, 35, has been sentenced to 40 months in jail after officers recovered 1,170 images and films from his computer. Some 392 of them were in category A, the worst class of image.

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He was also found to be in possession of a so-called paedophile manual which gave instructions of how to "safely" have sex with a child.

Judge Justice Edis told Venebles: "This is a vile document which gives detailed instructions on how to have sex with small children, as it puts it, 'safely'.

"The use of that word in that document reveals the cynical brutality of its author. This manual was created by someone with some detailed anatomical knowledge and is designed to encourage its readers to perpetrate the most serious sexual offences against very small children."

Some of the indecent images found on his computer featured babies. The judge added it is "significant" that a number of the images and films were also of serious crimes inflicted on male toddlers.

Venables and Robert Thompson were found guilty of the torture and murder of Jamie Bulger in Liverpool in 1993. They were 10 years old at the time and their case shocked the nation.

The pair were given new identities after they were released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years in a young offenders' institution.

Venables was jailed in 2010 after admitting downloading child pornography.

Chris Johnson, of the Justice for James Campaign, said: "On behalf of [James's mother] Denise I would like to say that sitting through this hearing this morning was an horrendous ordeal for Denise, having to listen to the vile and repulsive behaviour that Venables has engaged in yet again.

"The length of the sentence is too short. Three years is really a farce because this is re-offending and there is a pattern to this behaviour."

Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation, said: "The work of the IWF has managed to reduce the proportion of these images hosted in the UK from 18% in 1996 to less than 1% today, but this case only serves to highlight how important the fight against online child sexual abuse images is and how much more there remains to be done.

"It's vital to remember that every one of these images is of a real child and every time someone views that image the child is revictmised again and again."