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Jon Venables, one of the killers of toddler James Bulger, is reportedly too frightened to attend his own parole hearing if the murdered child's family is present.

Venables was previously released from prison in 2001 but was recalled to jail in 2010 and 2017 for offences related to child abuse images.

He was just 10 years old when he and Robert Thompson abducted and killed two year old James in Merseyside in 1993 in a crime that shocked the nation.

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Shop security footage showed the pair leading the two-year-old away from Bootle's Strand Centre.

Two days later he was found dead on a railway line, having been tortured by the pair.

Venables is due to appear before officials again next month

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