The child killer Jon Venables has lost a Parole Board bid to be freed from jail.

The 41-year-old tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger in 1993.

The Parole Board said on Wednesday: “After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in custody and on licence, and the evidence presented in the dossier, the panel was not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public.

“It noted the risks as set out above, doubted Mr Venables’ ability to be open and honest with professionals, and concluded that there remained a need for him to address outstanding levels of risk, and to develop his relationship with his probation officer.”

The decision came after a series of delays and following a hearing held behind closed doors in mid-November.

Venables was jailed alongside Robert Thompson when they were both aged 10 after snatching James from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993.

Venables was released on licence in July 2001 and recalled to prison in February 2010 after indecent images of children were found on his computer. He was again released in August 2013 and then called back in November 2017 for the same offence, with parole judges last considering his case in September 2020.

There is a longstanding legal order in place to protect the new identities of Venables and Thompson because of their young age when they committed the murder. This meant that the chair of the Parole Board of England and Wales, Caroline Corby, chose not to hold his parole hearing in public and James’s family were not able to attend.

According to a summary of the Parole Board’s latest decision, Venables had “accepted that he had a long-term sexual interest in children/indecent images of children”, despite taking part in a “considerable amount of work in prison to address this area of risk”. He had a history of taking drugs and secretly trying to use the internet in breach of licence conditions.

The panel was “concerned by continuing issues of sexual preoccupation in this case”, warning there were “future risks” of him viewing more child sexual abuse images and of him “progressing to offences where he might have contact with children”.

“Both of these present a risk of causing serious harm to others,” the three-page document added.

The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, said: “James Bulger’s barbaric murder was a crime that shocked the nation and I welcome the Parole Board’s decision to keep his killer behind bars.

“Public protection is our number one priority, which is why I opposed Jon Venables’ release, and this government is reforming the parole system to introduce a stronger ministerial check on the release of the most dangerous offenders.”

The mother of James Bulger, Denise Fergus, speaking to the Mirror last month, said: “He seems to have the upper hand. He gets protected. He gets a new identity. He gets a private hearing. Sometimes it feels like we are the criminals, not him, which is ridiculous.”

Fergus said in September that the thought of Venables being released from prison before Christmas left her in “a state of shock”.

She said: “Venables has had so many chances in the past and he’s blown them all. He doesn’t care. He seriously doesn’t care about anybody.”

In her message to the Parole Board before the hearing on Wednesday, she said: “Look into my eyes and see what I’ve had to deal with for 30 years – three decades of hell. Keep people safe from this monster, because that is what he is, and don’t give him what he wants.”

Fergus has campaigned for years against the release of Venables, through her charity the James Bulger Memorial Trust, and believes he will always pose a threat to the public. Speaking to the Mirror last month, she said she would “crumble” if her son’s killer was freed and described him as a “monster”.

Kym Morris, the chair of the James Bulger Memorial Trust, said the decision was “the news we were praying for”.

“This is the day Denise has waited for for years. The prospect of him coming out was terrifying, as we knew he’d harm again. This is a day we celebrate and we thank the Parole Board for making the correct decision.”