What Now for Venables?
March 10, 2010
Baroness Butler-Sloss, Britain's most famous, no nonsense female lawyer, who ruled that Venables should be entitled to lifelong anonymity back in 2001 has now warned that he could be murdered if his new identity is revealed. You may have seen the media speculation that the reason Venables was recalled was on suspicion of offences related to images of child abuse. There may be nothing in it, but it raises extremely difficult issues when we look at the Government's drive to introduce a 'Sarah's law' type system to give parents the opportunity to obtain information about sex offenders in their area. Jack Straw has been advised that to reveal why Venables has been recalled will undermine the integrity of the criminal justice system. Conflicting issues, I think.