James Bulger's Dad: 'Don't Free His Killer'

The father of James Bulger has made an impassioned plea to a parole board not to release Jon Venables, one of his son's killers.

In a victim impact statement delivered through his solicitor, Ralph Bulger spoke of the "daily nightmare" of life since his two-year-old son's murder.

Venables and Robert Thompson were 10 when they abducted James from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993.

The pair walked the toddler several miles to a railway line in Walton, where they tortured and killed him.

They were convicted of murder and served eight years in prison before being freed and issued with secret new identities.

But Venables was jailed for two years last July after pleading guilty to downloading and distributing indecent images of children.

A parole board is now considering whether to free him again.

Outside Liverpool Crown Court, Mr Bulger's solicitor, Robin Makin, labelled the original decision to release Venables as "crassly stupid".

"Ten years ago this month, in June 2001 a decision was made by the parole board to release Jon Venables," he said.

"At that time we very much wanted to make all possible representations to the parole board. They refused to allow us to do so. We submitted a lot of material to them.

"Quite astonishingly the parole board have no records of what happened 10 years ago.

"And the Ministry of Justice don't seem to have been able to have located any of those papers. So we have had to start again."

Mr Makin said his client had been forced to re-live the details of the murder, including the torture and sexual abuse which James suffered at the hands of his killers.

"Ralph had to deal with that situation. It's a very stressful day for Ralph," Mr Makin said

He added that Mr Bulger had suffered depression, sleep loss, nightmares and post-traumatic stress, but the authorities had "done nothing" to help him.

The parole board now has 10 days to consider its decision.