Venables ???

The whole of the United Kingdom seems to be in a debate over the case of Jon Venables. So I thought I'd give my two-cents worth over a debate thats enthralled the Nation.

I was very young when the case first appeared and didnt know very much of the story. I had heard it in passing over the years but had never read or understood the full version. However that changed after newspaper after newspaper had the young Jon Venables on their front cover. Everyone, including the Loose Women on ITV were talking about him and his sudden re-appearence back in the jail cell. This has become a debate of should he be unveiled to the public or not? This was something I had only read or watched and hadn't actually thought about my own opinion. That was until I was at work on Sunday, when a colleague randomly asked, out of the blue, "What do you think about Venables"?

I was speechless for a second that this was something that was making it in to my social banter at work, literally, EVERYONE was talking about it. Forced to give my opinion I stood and thought about it for a while. My first thought was, "killer, let him rot in jail," my second, "oh but he was only a child" and my third, after much deliberation was, "let him be".

In my opinion, yes he was young when he killed a child but he was old enough to know what he was doing. He may have been abused in his home but surely this made it clear to him how it felt to be abused and punished, and should know it doesn't feel good; so why do unto someone else?

I also do not think that he should be unveiled to the public. He served his time in jail, he spent 8 years being punished for what he did, (however I will grant the idea that this sentence is nowhere near as long as it should be for killing a child) why should we punish him anymore? If the public were told, his life would be over. The first gang that got to him would kill him. Sadly I also think that the newspapers would applaud the killers of Jon Venables. This is not what a Great Nation should become. Killers, of any kind, are, at the end of the day, killers; and should never be appluaded or congratulated.

Venables will have to live every day, knowing that his country hate him, that the child he killed will always be with him and he will know the pain he has caused to the family of the child. I say this is nearly enough, this with a longer prison sentence is what is needed for Venables, not public humiliation and goading. Let the justice system sort him out.

Let me know your opinion.