After placing his first cartoon (about a man who broke out of jail for the seventh time) in a local Swiss newspaper at the age of 20, he worked his way to America, where he was employed first by the New York Times as an illustrator, then by Newsweek, which hired him to write a comic strip.
Since the news broke on Tuesday that Venables had breached his licence and had been returned to jail, ministers have refused to release details of his alleged offence.