MPs are set to learn how one of James Bulger’s killers descended into lawlessness and began using child pornography.
Jon Venables, 27, was jailed for two years in July after he was caught with sick images of youngsters on his computer.
The offender – who murdered two-year-old James with Robert Thompson when they were just 10 – was under supervision by a variety of authorities but built up a stash of indecent pictures.
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke will present the findings to the House of Commons later.
The review will claim only 24-hour surveillance could have stopped Venables from viewing child pornography and will clear probation officers of any individual wrongdoing, according to reports.
It was in February this year that Venables was arrested and recalled over child pornography allegations. Evidence later emerged that he had an “extensive history of searching for and downloading indecent images of children using the internet”.
James’s mother, Denise Fergus, condemned the two-year sentence as “simply not enough”. Mrs Fergus and her spokesman said they were “surprised and concerned” that Venables had not been recalled for breaching his licence.
Venables told officers he had enjoyed the images of abuse and said he was “breaking the last taboo”. He even adopted an online alter ego as a married mother offering to sell her eight-year-old daughter to a paedophile.
The report will show no major errors were made in the supervision of Venables by probation staff, it is understood. But it is expected to highlight that he was drinking too much and using drugs.
And it will say that the only way Venables could have been stopped from amassing his collection of child pornography would have been through 24-hour surveillance, thought to cost about £8,000 per week.
