Bulger mother: why is Venables in custody?
Updated on 08 March 2010
As the justice secretary hints that more information could be disclosed about the recall to prison of Jon Venables, James Bulger's mother tells ITV she has "a right to know".
Denise Fergus, the mother of James Bulger, has led demands to know what prompted last week’s move.
She told ITV1's This Morning programme, "I do believe that I should be told because I've fought endlessly and tirelessly."
Asked if it would satisfy her to be told about the events leading to Venables's return to jail, she said, "Yes... I just want peace of mind."
She promised that when she meets Jack Straw, the justice secretary, the first question she will ask him is: "Why has he (Venables) been put back into custody?"
And questioned about whether or not Venables should be given a new identity if convicted of a serious crime, she said, "No, definitely not."
Ms Fergus told Philip Schofield, "My head's been all over the place" since the news of Venables's release on 2 March. "I don't know what he's done. I don't know whether he's gone on to kill someone else."
She said when she was told the Parole Board wanted to meet her last week, "I honestly thought it would be Thompson because I've always been led to believe that he was the evil one."
And she revealed that every question she put to the Parole Board spokeswoman, "she either couldn't answer or wasn't allowed to answer".
Meanwhile, amid mounting pressure to reveal further details about Venables’s recall since it emerged last Tuesday that he had breached the terms of his release, Jack Straw is to answer an urgent question on Venables in the Commons at 1530 hours this afternoon.
Between a rock and a hard place
Channel 4 News home affairs correspondent Simon Israel writes: "The government has been struggling for the last week to hold the line of refusal as more details emerge about Venables's alleged offences.
"But Mr Straw finds himself between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand I suspect he's being advised by lawyers not to say anything that could reveal Venables's current identity because of a court order.
"On the other hand, politically the government's facing a potential crisis of public confidence in the parole system.
"All these seeds were sown back in 2001 when the two were released under the most exceptional circumstances and at huge cost. But both judges and politicians now find themselves in a situation which is unsustainable."
Horns of a dilemma
The justice secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I understand your point and I will give further consideration to it during the day.
"I think it is pretty well known that my overriding instinct in public life is to give as much information as possible, as early as possible. It is not to sit on things.
"So there has to be a good reason for doing what I am doing at the moment."
Straw acknowledged he was on "the horns of a dilemma" on the issue, warning that the release of new information risked prejudicing further criminal proceedings.
He said: "The judgement I have made, I have received very clear advice from people directly involved in the investigation. It could be prejudicial, and in my view better to be cautious about what was disclosed."
Shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve said there was public disquiet and public anxiety about last week's development, and he called on Jack Straw to make a statement on the matter in the House of Commons.
He said, "If (Jack Straw) is able to do an interview, as he did this morning for the Today programme, then it strikes me that what he should be doing is coming to parliament and making a statement.
"He can then explain fully what it is he can't say, and why - and I think that that would be helpful."
At the weekend shadow home secretary Chris Grayling told Sky News, "Jack Straw has taken a decision not to give information. There must be compelling legal reasons for that to happen."
Venables and Robert Thompson, his accomplice, were 10 when they battered two-year-old James Bulger to death in Liverpool in February 1993.
