Laurence Lee, former solicitor for Jon Venables
Who? Laurence Lee, 56, principal at north-west firm Laurence Lee & Co.
Why is he in the news? Has appeared widely in the press commenting on the return of Jon Venables to prison.
Lee defended Venables in his 1993 trial for the murder of two-year-old James Bulger in Bootle, Merseyside. Venables, who was 10 at the time, was found guilty of the murder along with another boy of the same age, Robert Thompson. Venables was released from prison on licence in 2001, but is now back behind bars after the Ministry of Justice claimed he had breached his probation terms. He has a new identity and his whereabouts are unknown.
Lee has warned that ‘every prison in the country will be looking round to see whether or not there's a 27-year-old who looks a little bit like that boy’.
Thoughts on the case: ‘I’m unhappy with the way the government has handled Jon Venables’ recall to prison. The almost total lack of information has led to hysteria and speculation, which is not good for the cause of justice – either for the Bulger family or for Jon Venables.
‘The 1993 trial was one of the highest-profile cases any lawyer could be called upon to handle. I just happened to pick up the telephone in the magistrates’ court and it was a desk sergeant looking for an available duty solicitor. The case raised questions about the age of criminal responsibility. Do 10-year-olds have the maturity to answer for their actions? There was a similar case in Norway around the same time as the Bulger case, where two boys aged six killed a five-year-old girl. They were back at school within a couple of weeks, and there was no tabloid hysteria or petitions calling for long jail terms… Can we honestly say our system is better?’
Career high: ‘The Jon Venables case.’
Career low: ‘I was expecting high-flying law cases when I began articles in 1974, but the closest I got to high flying was climbing a ladder. I was putting up election posters for the senior partner who was standing for parliament.’
