Mercy Muroki: Killers like Jon Venables should spend the rest of their lives behind bars

What is happening in Ukraine is, as it rightly should be, at the top of the news agenda right now. It speaks to fundamental questions of freedom, rights, and public safety - across the world, and very much here at home.

But I do think it's also important to remind ourselves that there are other very real domestic issues happening around us that should be deeply concerning. The list is endless, and growing in 2022.

But let me give you one of those things that caught my eye, which really concerns me – especially as a parent.

Over the weekend, the father of murdered toddler James Bulger has made a desperate plea to the parole board to not release one of his son's killers, Jon Venables, as Venables makes his latest bid for freedom to the parole board.

Along with his friend Robert Thomson, Venables tortured and killed two year old James Bulger, after kidnapping him from a shopping centre in 1993. The pair were 10 years old.

They became the youngest people jailed for murder when they were found guilty.

Now, many people in Britain will be very familiar with this story – it was one that shook the nation. But the fact that Jon Venables now has a prospect of freedom repulses me. And to explain why, it's worth recapping a few facts.

Venables, along with Thompson, was released from a young offenders' institution under license in 2001, both with new identities at the taxpayers expense.

In fact, Venables' identity has changed twice, after he told friends he was a murderer, and apparently to protect the killer from violence.

In 2008, Venables had a drunken brawl and was found in possession of cocaine – he was only given a caution.

And here's the crux of it all:

Two years later, in 2010, Venables was sent back to jail for having child abuse images on his laptop. He was released after a pathetic three years, and given a new identity - why? because the parole board recommended his release.

But, guess what? In 2017, he was recalled to prison after, yet again, being caught with child abuse images. He was jailed in early 2018 after he admitted to possessing over a thousand indecent images of children.

Now, I know Venables was only 10 when he committed his initial crime of murdering James Bulger. But my opinion is this – the man has proven that even in adulthood, he is a danger to children.

It's my view that some people are so depraved, so evil that the only fair and just outcome is for them to spend the rest of their life behind bars.

This monster has cost the public around £5million, already - to bring him to justice, to give him a new identity, and to keep HIM safe. But the cost to little James Bulger's family is immeasurable.

And the cost to public safety if his latest bid to be released is accepted, is unspeakable.

Ralph Bulger, James Bulger's dad, spoke out last week and said this about Venables, and I quote: "He's a convicted paedophile murderer with an insatiable lust for children. He simply can't stop himself... If this monster is released, he will abuse and kill again."

I'm not willing to take the risk to find out if Ralph Bulger is wrong.

So, as we focus on international affairs in this moment, and feel anger and outrage at the injustices being perpetrated abroad by murderous monsters.

Let's not forget that we have our own monsters here at home, and a justice system which often proves itself to be also deserving of the utmost anger and outrage.