The pair were handed new identities after being released from prison. He believes these were evil boys. Both had parents who had separated. Real bottom of the gut stuff, like an animal. After a while the boys became used to it. Jon's parents, who sat in court for most of the trial, said they grieved for the Bulgers. But they shouldn't have been tried in an adult court because they were still children. The other boy, Robert Thompson, we are told is now abiding by the conditions of his life license since he was released 17 years ago, and is doing well. Bulger killer had 'better life' after toddler murder - BBC News My young body must have been tense with the deep anxiety that permeated every inch of that courtroom. 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The case of James, a two-year-old who was snatched from a shopping centre in Bootle, Liverpool, in 1993, before being tortured and left to die, shocked the nation. He was too scared to be naughty on his own. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. It was this empowering chemistry between them that some argued set into motion the life-altering events that would devastate a family, challenge a community, and rock a nations core in the disquieting months that followed. The old wood panelled courtroom is small. Counsel for the prosecution, Richard Henriques QC, made it clear all three elements needed to be proved for a murder conviction. All information on this page is true to my knowledge, and is not intended to diminish or justify either boys actions in any way whatsoever. The two bumped into each other - literally - in the school playground in the middle of a fight. Susan Venables, now 53, suffered from severe depres-sion and struggled with her two other children, an older son and younger daughter, who suffered learning difficulties. You know, we just try and help him as best we can to try to come to terms with things. A newsroom reporter who was not working on the case fended off transatlantic interview demands, saying that it was not enough that he had a Liverpool accent. eb. Sandra Gotheridge. Robert's feelings towards his half-brother also appear to have been ambivalent - he told police he would not have murdered James Bulger because 'if I wanted to kill a baby, I'd kill my own, wouldn't I?'. I didnt, did I? she said to Neil during their interview with Gitta Sereny. Mr Venables said: "He wouldn't watch horror. 'The attitude when you live where we live is that you have to be tough or else you don't survive,' she said. To do that he put on the witness stand all those people who had seen the three boys on the route from the shopping centre to the railway line. In the mean time, Susan, finding her new living conditions insufferable, soon decided to move back in with Neil until she could find another place of her own. He's a good reader if he's interested in it. Venables, who was released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years for the murder of two-year-old James, was returned to prison last November after he was caught with the pictures. At the end of the street a mesh wire frame coverered the window of the money lenders. Their faces affected me deeply. 'I couldn't be arsed talking about them,' said one. Thompson, who gained five GCSEs and A-levels in design and technology, is said to have developed an interest in theatre. Few will ever forget the chilling footage of two 10-year-old boys holding a toddler's hand as they led him to his death. But talking in 1993, his mother tried to explain how her child turned into a murderer. Mrs Venables said: "He mentions James, not all the time. has prompted a public outcry for an investigation into issues surrounding the case. So, when he first began his association with classmate Jon Venables, in September 1992, Robert was happy to have finally befriended a boy like Jon, who could almost always be persuaded to follow in his lead. Kids fantasise about such things. Venables parents were divorced but still lived within a stones throw of one another and were both involved in their sons upbringing. Forlorn hope, though. Shame? They knew what they were doing," another wrote. Lady Penelope was his favourite character because she was rich, followed by Brains with the glasses. 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The Rt Reverend Glyn Webster lights a candle in front of the newly restored Lady Chapel East Window at All Saints North Street in York, one of thirteen stained glass windows from the church undergoing conservation work at Barley Studio, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary Pat Cullen on the picket line outside Great Ormond Street Hospital in London during a strike by nurses and ambulance staff, Britains former prime minister Liz Truss leaves her home on February 5, 2023 in London, England. "In terms of knowing what the full consequences of your actions are, you are into older childhood or adolescence. In contrast he has had no contact with his father despite an approach soon after sentencing. "All he said when we've said 'Why didn't you run away?' Behind them eyes bore into them - from everyone on all sides, journalists, their parents, members of the public, and of course, theBulgerfamily. Twenty-five years on, Im still prone to hot tears at the memory of it all and I do question the trial. Three days later his body was found, and three days after that a tip-off came from a shopkeeper who had seen two boys playing truant on the day James went missing and gave police two names - Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. "'It wasnt fair to interview him. One day they stayed out until 10.30pm and Jon received a severe reprimand from his mother. The left will make play of social deprivation, unemployment, bad housing and general inner-city rot. At the trialnine months laterI would learn that Robert Thompson had been among those people. Will you tell his Mum Im sorry?. On Sundays he used to watch Thunderbirds. He had a Game Boy console and hankered after a Sega machine, and when they played truant he would head straight for the computer game corner of Tandy's or Dixons. The family was put up in a hostel temporarily and later relocated by the social services. One neighbour said she always let him into her home whenever his mother was out. Murder of James Bulger. Everton was his team. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. Other parents came in to complain about attention seeking. Only a handful of officials and close family members know their true identities. He had an elder brother, aged 13, and a nine-year-old sister. xf fy. Parents who stand by James's killers - Express.co.uk Heck, we don't even have murderers that young in New York.'. 'Provided you have no court orders for debts already,' the man on the phone would add helpfully. I wonder how many parents looked at their sons of a similar age that week, sure in the knowledge their own children could never be so wicked, but asked themselves anyway "what would I do if?". NEIL Venables was warned by friends not to let his son play with the other boy. Trauma? Superintendent Kirby is a religious man. "Contrary to what the papers will tell you, he is not a little urchin boy. Big Bobby, like Anns father, was a violent alcoholic, who was easily crossed. Were they to blame? We still dont know why. He had that odd combination of obsession with and disdain for possessions that is characteristic of children who have never enjoyed any of their own. She initially enrolled the two younger children in Broad Square Elementary, but it soon became clear that her daughter was struggling to keep up with the schools curriculum. 'I was the softie,' Neil Venables said. Both Ann and the children knew well the sting of palm against flesh, and Bobby often used these beatings to ensure that his wife and children conformed. There is hatred and envy directed at the baby - a wish to see it suffer in the way they have suffered. He is one of those children that if you told him to put his hand in the fire, he would. Eventually, Bobby walked out on his family, but not before beating his wife one final time. Words with the drawing, full of spelling mistakes and grammatical. "You look at him and you say to yourself, 'How could you be involved in anything like this?'" Venables received a 40-month prison sentence after appearing via video link at the Old Bailey. Directly in front of the bench was the raised dock in which Thompson, Venables, and two social workers would sit for the next four weeks. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. "My heart really goes out to them. I am providing this page for those who are interested in learning more about the lives of these boys prior to their offense. "We are committed to driving sustainability in the leather industry, through the commitment of. She said an educational psychologist had diagnosed hyperactivity in her son, who was bullied at his previous school. Haunting CCTV footage shows the pair leading the tiny, trusting boy . I remember watching her then on TV, her sobbing plea for information and thinking how much guts it must have taken to get up that day and face a roomful of journalists and photographers. Another time they were saucy and asked a sales girl if she stocked 'fishy nickers'. He has had security with loving parents and a loving brother and sister.". I wish we could turn the clocks back,' Mrs Venables, 36, said. Jon was afraid of her. Susan Venables has blamed weakness for her sons role in the killing of James Bulger, claiming that he got involved with the wrong person. The phone-in programme, as ever, was a place to turn to try to find reasons - evil, poverty, neglect, possessed anything to explain what felt inexplicable. fn ye vw la. 'I walked round for a couple of hours trying to find them. Friday 12th February 1993. "The report of the Prison Service into an incident at Red Bank secure unit has not been published. Robert was number five of seven. 'Sometimes I told Robbie to do things so he does,' he told a police officer, with pride in his voice. The Crown Prosecution Service released a statement in January confirming Venables had been charged. Some neighbours claim they saw the boy snaring birds into traps in the back yard of his home, while one local youth claimed he saw the boy pull the heads off live baby pigeons. On Monday night's documentary, Robert Thompson's solicitor Dominic Lloyd said: "Many years after the trial a juror said 'we found them guilty of murder but we didn't have the option to find them guilty of being two very bewildered and frightened little boys who made an awful mistake and need a lot of help'.". On one occasion one of Anns sons let his real name slip at school and they had to move almost at once, says. James smith (16 March 1990 [2] - 12 February 1993) was a two-year-old boy from Kirkby, Merseyside, England, who was abducted, tortured, and murdered by two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson (born 23 August 1982) and Jon Venables (born 13 August 1982), on 12 February 1993. Egypt. More press conferences, terrible details beginning to emerge about the state James was found in, and the chilling prospect, soon confirmed, that indeed it was children who had done this. I didnt connect the dots until much later on. From the moment Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were convicted of the murder of James Bulger, their, families have been condemned to lives spent looking over their shoulders. Mr Venables ran out of the car and grabbed him, while Robert ran off down the street laughing and shouting: 'You can't catch me.'. Such pleasantries were not for Robbie. In return, Jon would let Robert ride his bicycle, and from time to time he would suggest naughty deeds himself. Thompson & Venebales. Neil Venables regarded himself as the Barry Norman of Merseyside - a film buff with a penchant for horror. By now, Robert had also stepped comfortably into the role of the aggressor, and, following in the footsteps of his elder brothers, began tormenting his eight-year-old brother on a daily basis. Birds. Mrs Thompson worked as an office cleaner until two years ago, when she got pregnant again by another man, who also left her. I have lost my son as well. This time, curiosity took the upper hand: 'I wanted to see what it was like,' he said. Susan seemed happy with the arrangement, although, for the children, this type of relationship would have been just one more confusing anomaly to cope with in the wake of an already confusing time in their young lives. Meanwhile, Thompson has not re-offended since his release, and is believed to be in a long-term relationship with a man who knows who he really is. 'I can't read hard words,' he said. I wasnt on duty that day, so the very beginnings of the story washed over me. Usually, they were slung out. But his progress took a nose dive in September 1991 when he was transferred into another class. He would go to bed. Less thanfive hours laterthe verdicts were in. In some families this was the third generation to be unemployed. . The right will draw attention to the broken homes, the single parents, the persistent truancy. In quest of companionship, he occasionally bullied his younger brother into truanting with him, and, in an effort to impress his peers, frequently boasted of his late-night exploits on the railway line, but failed to attract much attention. Security launched a search for James inside the centre and James' family searched for their son overnight. It was during this time that Susan, having suffered from clinical depression for many years, had experienced what were later described as two traumatic incidences, both of which Jon would have witnessed. Reporters from around the world ended up in the drab streets of Walton, cadging interviews off any 10-year-old boys hanging around in the streets. So he came home. . His mother, Anne Marie Thompson, who is 39, got the house from the local housing trust after her husband, Robert, ran off with a woman from Stockport five years ago. 2023 BBC. Just something to do.'. But then, the whole of Robert's family was a bit like that - shunned, outcast, the butt of local criticism, and very well known to police. Gillespie, McNeilly, and Powell were sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years. At first, Robert seemed to respond well to this, taking the initiative to help feed and clothe the baby, and doing what he could to please his mother. He says 'I know, Mum'. James mother Denise Fergus has been saying this for a long time, but still we hoped that the boy who savaged a tiny child to death could become a man safe to be in our midst. There was almost total silence there apart from the sound of shoes on the ground. Robert said 'If you tell anybody I'll get my big brother to batter you up'. 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Ironically, Jon was the child who caused his parents least anxiety. We feel so sorry for him because he must be going through so much torment. She found it hard bringing the kids up in the neighbourhood. Neil explained to him that the school they attended was special, and that Jon wouldnt be accepted. The shock in the city was plain to see, but it wasn't just in Liverpool that people stared at the CCTV pictures of the boy holding James' hand, while another led the way to the exit of the shopping centre where a frantic Denise Bulger would have been desperately looking for her child. Will you tell his mum I'm sorry?". They went on family outings together, slept together, and when Susan did find a place, virtually coexisted between the two homes. He had been stripped from the waist down,. She was paranoid about being discovered. Guilty of abducting and murdering James PatrickBulger. Please review our, You need to be a subscriber to join the conversation. She remained very frightened and felt that she and her son were the most hated people in the country. She would arrive at the secure unit with food parcels and is said to be proud of his achievements since the crime. For me, though, it is Susan and Neil Venables who stay most in my memory of that day. susan and neil venables "Throughout the conduct of the case there have been a number of issues that have been swept under the carpet. The most startling moment of the trial came when, in lieu of giving evidence in person, the boys' taped interviews with police - recorded just after their arrest - were played in court. Facebook gives people the power. Every day the public gallery was packed with students, pensioners, mothers, teenagers, all drawn to the courtroom spectacle as to a TV soap. Neither gave evidence to the court, but were found guilty after an officer told how Venables admitted the murder, saying, "We did it. Neil had been laid off in the months prior, so the couple sold their home, and Neil moved back in with his father, before finally relocating to an apartment in Kirkdale. Extraordinarily, she even shouted up to the railway tracks at Walton where she knew Robert had a den. His father, thin and balding, had a much gentler edge. Depressed, Ann began drinking heavily and was taking narcotics which caused her to hallucinate. I used to get them for myself at night time. 'When the fisticuffs ended, they made friends.' And there were rewards for breaking rules. We will never be able to do the fun things any more . The couple, who are living together again after a partial separation, said their feelings towards Jon had not changed despite the terrible crime. At Radio City in Liverpool the calls were coming through from Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The boys, by now lacking any sense of guidance within the home, took to the streets, robbing, truanting, and some of them experimenting with drugs. Jon was slim in build and taller than Robert, just over five feet. Occasionally, when the children would be left sitting on the red wall outside the house too long, one of the neighbours would call the police to go and get her out of the Top House. But his comment sparked anger from viewers. Drivers have been warned to leave extra time for their Monday morning commute due to icy roads during rush hour, following a weekend of wintry weather. I cant believe people find excuses for these murderers. Truanting, or 'sagging off', had become a way of life for Robert. Although not officially entered into a witness protection programme they were given help by the authorities in finding new homes and taking on new identities. Anne Thompson could hold her drink and no one ever saw her staggering home. It is about a Good Guy doll invaded by the spirit of a mass murderer who kills people in gruesome ways. From their point of view it makes perfect sense. Born 10 days apart in August 1982 in Liverpool. Channel 5 is set to air a new two-part documentary that tells the definitive story of . 'I didn't know it would be like this,' Mr Venables said with hindsight. 'When you have got people in the area threatening to blow your kneecaps off every moment of the day - that's just the way they are. Just having a bit of shade!! Their kids have got everything. Her warnings arent being heeded, but 25 years on, I think she is probably right. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (second left) and Scottish Secretary Alister Jack (second right) during a visit to the Port of Cromarty Firth, Invergordon, during a two day visit to Scotland to highlight the benefits of remaining in the United Kingdom as he seeks to counter Nicola Sturgeon's push for independence, King Charles reacts as he visits the Aboyne and Mid Deeside Community Shed in Scotland, There are only a handful of images of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, 'Jon was weak and was provoked': Parents of Jamie Bulger killers speak, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off & extra perks with Booking.com Genius Membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 10% off selected orders over 100 - eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. ", Children accused of a crime are usually granted anonymity, but at the end of the trial the judge allowed both to be named, "because the public interest overrode the interest of the defendants.". There was a pattern of bullying, with the older boys picking on their younger brothers down the line. However, you will find some great articles which you can comment on right now in our Comment section. His mates called him a girl because whenever there was something on his mind he sucked his thumb. Not that he had any need to borrow his dad's. At Preston Crown Court a few months later, I was one of a handful of journalists given full access to the small courtroom for the trial of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both now 11-years-old. 'It's always our family that gets the blame,' Robert said to police after he was arrested for James's murder. The government will be required to respond within 14 days if as the petition achieves more than 100,000 signatures.
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