si fs. Good people asked the boys if they were lost or urged them to take "their baby brother" home as he cried for his mummy. The boys at Dyson Hall were the object of some envy among their mates because they were given tracksuits and trainers upon arrival and went on trips to Alton Towers. According to a legal source we spoke to this week, Jon Venables parents have sought to be a support for their son, despite the enormity of his crime. Behind them eyes bore into them - from everyone on all sides, journalists, their parents, members of the public, and of course, theBulgerfamily. The press were gobbling it up. There was a pattern of bullying, with the older boys picking on their younger brothers down the line. 'If, in their own lives, they have had it extremely tough and been bullied and neglected and abused then they end up rapidly having to prove themselves to be extremely tough and invulnerable - a bit like Arnold Shwarzenegger in The Terminator. 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. Dudson was given a minimum term of 18 years. Apart from Jon's incident with the ruler, there had been no record of previous violence. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter', Why half of India's urban women stay at home. Although he appeared to have the more stable upbringing of the two boys, there was a history of family problems. And there were rewards for breaking rules. When Jon left home on the morning of Friday, February 12 he was happy because it was the last day of school before a week's holiday and he was going to take some pet gerbils home. His mother called him hyperactive since, even more than his friend, he was scarcely able to sit still. They deal with drugs, they deal with everything. March 10, 2021 - 20:29 GMT Eve Crosbie. He is broken- hearted over it. He once came to me crying saying the other boys were picking on him, trying to steal his bike.'. 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. Without anyone in the family to turn to for support, he had to look outside for people whose swaggering aggression he could emulate. 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. He began telling his father that he believed his parents loved his brother and sister more than they did him, and, at one point, implored his father to send him to school with his siblings. 'In this state it is quite painful to see a normal relationship between mother and child. Both had a need to attract attention, which they achieved through a host of petty rebellions. The police have uncovered no evidence of any abuse within either family. INSIDE the court sat the two boys, dwarfed by the weight and majesty of the place. Ultimately, however, the couples indifferences led to separation, and they were eventually divorced in 1986. Click here to find personal data about Susan Venables including phone numbers, addresses, directorships, electoral roll information, related property prices and other useful information. They did. CCTV images revealed how James had been lured away by Thompson and Venables, who was also aged 10. Not their punishmentand exclusion from society for the rest of their childhood. It was their sons picked up by detectives. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Parents of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson talk about their sons, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Asked later if he could recall a time when his brother had exhibited any unusually aggressive tendencies, Roberts brother said no: Hes frightened of his own shadow. Nonetheless, in hindsight, its safe to assume that by 1993, ten-year-old Robert was swiftly approaching crisis point., Alarmingly, some of the neighboring children later claimed to have seen Robert behave cruelly towards animals, and pull the heads off of baby pigeons, although this was never unequivocally confirmed. They had much in common. Forensic and pathology evidence was a huge challenge for everyone, not least the jury who were shown pictures of James' injuries. she said. "He is easily led. . 'I can't read hard words,' he said. Money, or his family's lack of it, preyed on his mind. Grey seal pups on the beach at Horsey in Norfolk, as the pupping season draws to a close at one the UK's most important sites for the mammals. 'It was good. Jon spent Sunday to Thursday with his mum and the rest of every week with his dad. The two bumped into each other - literally - in the school playground in the middle of a fight. Then there were the separated parents, the poverty, the truanting, the videos. Their parents entered the courtroom; The Venables arrived together, Ann Thompson came with supporters but no sign of Robert's father. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. They were intent on killing. this weekend for breaching the terms of his early release, the parents of both the Bulger killers continue to stand by them. He had been stripped from the waist down,. "You look at him and you say to yourself, 'How could you be involved in anything like this?'" . During the Bulger investigation, police checked the details of 50 videos Mr Venables had hired in recent months. The first time he asked Jon to play truant with him was last September, only weeks after they had become friends. God knows how they must be feeling now.. 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. After they became friends he initiated Jon into the delights of climbing into people's back gardens and the consequent thrill of being chased out by the owners. Keep them apart or he'll get into trouble, they said. His mother cared about him. everyone blamed Thompson and. 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. The pattern of bullying among the brothers, which had been noted by the Head mistress of the boys school, appeared to descend down the line, with the eldest Thompson brother beating the one just below him in age, and that brother beating the brother below him, in turn. From a distance Robert looked a sweet child. 'We have never really been apart,' Mrs Venables said. 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. Their age was hard to gauge from the CCTV images, so just when you imagined you couldnt be more shocked by this story, it emerged the two accused were just 10-years-old. Maybe it was that incident that put the idea into Jon or Robbie's head to 'get a little boy lost'. Then, one Friday in February, they discovered a new rule to break: they murdered a two-year-old. "One mystery surrounding the murder of James Bulger case is why the 'experts' insisted that Jon Venables was rehabilitated. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. In the first press conference she gave the day after her son was taken, this 25-year-old woman struck me as a girl, a desperate, grief stricken girl whose tired swollen eyes told their own story. It has already been reported that Jon Venables real identity has been exposed in prison, where he is said to be receiving 24-hour protection. I'm bringing up on my own but if I went round and screwed every warehouse my children would have everything too.'. Absence of a male role model is increasingly being explored - by both left and right - as one of the main reasons why today's boys and young men are going wrong; why 90 per cent of indictable offences are committed by men. Gillespie, McNeilly, and Powell were sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years. On the 20 year anniversary of the murder of James Bulger, BBC Radio 5 Live's Shelagh Fogarty recalls the trial of his young killers. 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. When you have got people in the area threatening to blow your kneecaps off every moment of the daythats just the way they are. In contrast he has had no contact with his father despite an approach soon after sentencing. A smell of bleach lingered on some of the tiled steps that led up to the front doors. 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. They pair was ordered to be detained at her majesty's pleasure - meaning indefinitely - but in 2001, a six-month review by the parole board found they were no longer a threat to public safety and they were released on life licence after serving just eight years. The pair was tried for the abduction and murder of James as adults owing to the fact they were over 10, which is legally deemed to be the age of criminal responsibility. 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. In a 1993 interview, published in the Guardian newspaper just one day after Robert was convicted of the murder of James Bulger, Ann Thompson was quick to place fault on the neighborhood and the surrounding authorities, who she felt had failed both her and her sons. I would say he was provoked. Jon's parents said they talked to their son about James after he was arrested, but had to stop. He had been quiet that weekend, they said, but they had thought that was because his mother had taken him to the police station on the Friday evening for playing truant. He didn't want to hurt James. He did like to be liked, and loved to have friends, and he has got involved with the wrong person.". The sunrises through the sea mist over the sculpture The Couple by Sean Henry at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea on the Northumberland coast. His father, thin and balding, had a much gentler edge. When social workers came round, they did so to see his sister and his brother, who had learning difficulties and was receiving special education. Nine months later, I was one of 30 or so journalists inside Preston Crown Court when the trial began. She said that Jon was always "loving, caring, thoughtful and considerate . But after a year they let Ian out again. When he played truant he was scared she would come and find him. He was repulsed because he found Robert's disdain for authority scary. ', Mrs Thompson had no illusions about her son: 'He's a little liar, he's devious, he's a scally, he robs, he plays truant.' In any case, the couple drifted together, and in 1983, just fifteen months succeeding Jons birth, Susan gave birth to their third child, a daughter. Mrs Venables described how she searched for Jon. The teacher had a different perspective, saying that Susan was in fact aware of the issue, and had expressed deep concern. That's the thing that upsets me because obviously, where I was standing poor little James must have been not far . "He fell over," was the response. At his first primary school the headmistress referred him to a psychologist, noting how he used to bang his head against the classroom wall to gain attention. What they did was exceptionally unpleasant and the fact that a little boy ended up dead is not something the nation can easily forget. After a while the boys became used to it. She said that Jon was always "loving, caring, thoughtful and considerate . His parents, Susan and Neil, accompanied him during the interview process. And now The Bulger Killers: Was Justice Done? Online Marketing For Your Business They fled the city, never to return. Venables on the other hand was becoming increasingly agitated in the police interviews. Not for long though. 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. ', A psychoanalyst and child psychotherapist comes up with yet another possible explanation. They looked, moved, fidgeted, scratched, cried - even sucked their thumbs - just like any 11-year-olds. 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As a grim portrait of abuse, drunkenness and neglect emerged, the hatred and loathing for Robert Thompson and Jon Venables was also turned on their parents. Recently, I dug out my old notebooks of the trial and my handwriting during the verdicts says it all. They went on family outings together, slept together, and when Susan did find a place, virtually coexisted between the two homes. In the business world, too many people think it's all about being hard, tough, ambitious, or having grit. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. TWO BOYS. We feel so sorry for him because he must be going through so much torment. 'I sat away from him - he caused trouble,' Jon said. He stayed away from school so often the local police called him a professional truant. There is hatred and envy directed at the baby - a wish to see it suffer in the way they have suffered. He started with Liverpool, but by the time of the murder he had switched to Blackburn Rovers. 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. I dont think she saw a very happy future., The author says there was no contact with the Venables family after the trial as Mrs Thompson focused, her energy on supporting her son, refusing to accept he was a monster. To be absolutely accurate, she had only one illusion. I suspect she still feels that., In 2001 there was a renewed uproar over the case when it emerged that the killers were to be freed, despite a. recommendation by the trial judge that they should remain behind bars for a very long time. 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 BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Murder of James Bulger. But that is the common lot of thousands of 10-year-olds who have not turned into murderers. He appears to be a normal human, but inside the soft flesh there is indestructable metal. 'I didn't know it would be like this,' Mr Venables said with hindsight. A torrent of questions erupted from the moment the grim news came out that James Bulger's body had been found on a railway line in Liverpool and the last people seen with him were two ten-year-olds, captured on grainy CCTV footage. In all, they played truant four times. "It is hard to take in really. How can people defend their actions .#TheBulgerKillers.". Some of the red brick houses were well-kept, others had torn net curtains and grubby windows. One of Anns sons claimed that Ann, too, had beaten them with sticks, and had struck one of the boys with a cane. His mother especially has been a tower of strength, says the source. And in Lower Lane police station when he was being questioned about the murder she had to be told that her harsh words were inhibiting him from confessing. gk. At the time Ann Thompson pleaded for her son to be left alone and revealed that she and her other children had been forced to move house nine times in eight years. I made notes of the pathologists evidence. On Sundays he used to watch Thunderbirds. They didnt kill him in an accident it was premeditated and they tortured that poor baby. With Neil seldom in contact with Susan or the children during this time, Susan was forced to contend with Jons escalating troubles alone, sometimes taking her own frustrations out on the children. Mrs Venables said: 'I think it was because the class group was too big for them to go in . Teachers hold placards as they shout slogans while taking part in a protest organised in Manchester as part of a national strike day. Were they to blame? The best instincts led hundreds, including me, to lay flowers a few days later at the site of James horrific end. [3] [4] Thompson and Venables led Bulger away . Half way through the 1992-1993 school year, Robert had already racked up nearly 50 unauthorized absences, and was falling significantly behind in his schoolwork. I just heard an almighty screech. It was not until much later, when questioned as to his involvement in the death of James Bulger, that Roberts resentment towards the new baby became suddenly and painfully apparent. To widespread dismay and condemnation from the Bulger family, the killers were given new identities, courtesy of the taxpayer. The experience gave Jon renewed confidence, and the second time they sagged off together he suggested it. It was high- lighted by the trial judge Mr Justice Morland who said they must take moral responsibility for the terrible actions of the young killers. Anne Thompson could hold her drink and no one ever saw her staggering home. Jon lived in terror of losing his mother's love, yet he was also terrified of her. Susan Venables, mother of Jon - referred to throughout the trial as Boy B - blamed her son's 'weakness' for the murder of James Bulger, and said he was going through torment. If I wanted to kill a baby, Id kill Id kill me own, wouldnt I?. But he is not a murderer. sons, were settled in council houses within easy reach of the institutions where their sons were being held. He carried books on wrestling and wildlife in his school bag. He was too scared to be naughty on his own. ", Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Will you tell his mum I'm sorry?". She couldn't. As a result of the incident, Jon's mother decided to move him to another school. He denied having had any films that were not mainstream, or that were pornographic, in the house. We still think the same of him as we always have. After spending just eight years in custody, Britain's youngest killers were released and given lifetime anonymity in the UK. IN A letter to her son written soon after he was sentenced, Ann Thompson wrote: no matter what you did or didnt do, Im your mother and I will stay with you no matter what happens.. "An awful mistake for 10 year olds is shoplifting not murdering a 2 year old FFS," another angry viewer tweeted. The fathers of both Robert and Jon were without work. But apart from his brother, Robert struggled to build friendships. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. 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.'. Denise Fergus is the same age as me, a fact I only registered when I met her for the first time two weeks ago. "The report of the Prison Service into an incident at Red Bank secure unit has not been published. Thousands of members of Unison, Unite and the GMB unions are set to walk out across England and Wales on Monday as part of continued industrial action in the health service, Performers taking part in a parade involving costumes, lion dances and floats, during Chinese New Year celebrations in London, Everton fans hold up banners protesting against the board of directors during their Premier League match against West Ham at the London Stadium, A pair of swans fly over a frozen pond in Bushy Park in London, People take part in a demonstration in support of trans rights outside the UK Government Office in Edinburgh, A member of the Royal College of Nursing holds their dog whilst on the picket line outside Kings College Hospital in London, as nurses take industrial action over pay, The scene on the A39 Quantock Road in Bridgwater after a double-decker bus overturned in a crash involving a motorcycle, A man walks dogs in snowy conditions in a park in Hexham. his killers were just 10 years old and attention focused on their upbringing and dysfunctional home life. Robert would give Jon presents of stolen objects: trolls, of course, toy terrapins, sweets. It set the tone for the years ahead in which there was to be no respite from the hatred. 'America is the land of shopping malls. Mrs Venables said: "He mentions James, not all the time. Denise, James Bugler's mother, went with her brother's girlfriend Nicola to the Bootle Strand Shopping Centre and took James with her. The taunts upset Jons already volatile temper, and he began coming home in increasingly low spirits and crying. The prosecution, led by Richard Henriques QC, made its case quite simply really, using the journey they took James on to tell the story. The case is doomed to be picked over by every faction within the caring professionals and politics. I didnt, did I? she said to Neil during their interview with Gitta Sereny. I wasnt on duty that day, so the very beginnings of the story washed over me. Twenty-five years on, Im still prone to hot tears at the memory of it all and I do question the trial. They saw it with their eyes. 'I don't know,' he replied. In March 2010, Venables was recalled to prison for downloading and distributing more than 100 images of child abuse. Facebook gives people the power. Neil Venables, 40, said he felt "just devastated, thinking of that little boy'. It seems likely that he was bullied. 'The attitude when you live where we live is that you have to be tough or else you don't survive,' she said. At night, for instance, the two boys would lie in bed together and suck each others thumbs. The haunting words of Jon Venables' parents only interview have resurfaced, twenty five years after he killed tot Jamie Bulger. Please review our, You need to be a subscriber to join the conversation. He always had plenty of friends. 'In my opinion he was victimised. so they were put in a lower year. . He was fearful of the other boy. Ultimately, wanting to escape the havoc, most of the boys opted to leave home, and some were placed into voluntary care at Dysons Hall, a childrens home just outside of Liverpool. Only two people can answer the question, and even their ability is doubtful. They played truant, they pinched sweets, they terrorised old ladies. By now the Venables were reunited as a result of the court case. however, as the incident in the playground shows, the ever-present threat of discovery cast a constant shadow over anyone related to the two murderers. "He is easily led. DAVID James Smith, who visited Mrs Thompson at one of her secret homes, reveals that it was a sad existence. "My heart really goes out to them. Im bringing them up on my own, but if I went round and screwed every warehouse, my kids would have everything, too. Even so, while Roberts community was rough, his home life was perhaps worse, and could hardly be considered a refuge for the boy. She got her drinking under control and began giving her murderer son the attention he. Venables was a different creature. Her husband came back to Walton now and again to see his mother, but he never came to see the boys. On November 24, 1993, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables became the youngest persons to be convicted of murder in Britain in almost 250 years, when the pair, both eleven, was found guilty of the abduction and murder of two-year-old James Patrick Bulger. Financially, the couple appeared to be functioning, but meanwhile, Susan was at the end of her rope with her eldest son, who, having become increasingly frustrated at his inability to communicate, had grown terribly unhappy and was having temper tantrums regularly. He would throw things at other children, cut himself deliberately with scissors and stick paper all over his face. "I think about little James and what he must have gone through, how they must feel. He is one of those children that if you told him to put his hand in the fire, he would. Just something to do.'. He has had security with loving parents and a loving brother and sister.". But he liked collecting trolls, little doll-like creatures with ugly faces and spiky fluorescent hair. I would say he was provoked. Sitting in the new class was a chubby boy with a cherub's face - Robert Thompson. In some families this was the third generation to be unemployed. Unemployment levels were more than twice the national average in Walton. He was fearful, he was weak and he was provoked," she said. But however hollow a gesture it might have seemed, those who are in touch with the Thompson and Venables families insist that they have sought to make some sort of amends with their sons after the horrific events of 17 years ago that will rightly stay with them for the rest of their lives. 'I was the softie,' Neil Venables said. His mother, Susan, attributed this behavior with peer pressure and hyperactivity, and put him on a special diet, though it did nothing to quell his frequent emotional outbursts. The left will make play of social deprivation, unemployment, bad housing and general inner-city rot. The citys worst instincts produced the wrongful hounding of a family whose sons people decided were responsible. Such pleasantries were not for Robbie. He liked to spend the weekend on the streets. James Bulger would now be weeks away from his 23rd birthday. She visited regularly and they would hold family anniversaries in the, place where he was held. "I don't think we went wrong as parents at all. "It is hard to take in really. Susan and the children moved in with her mother for a short time, and then settled in a small cluster of derelict apartments in Old Swan, where Jon attended the nearby Broad Green Preschool. Words with the drawing, full of spelling mistakes and grammatical. Last November he was arrested and recalled to jail on suspicion of possession of images of child sex abuse. The old wood panelled courtroom is small. A newspaper man from Detroit said it was because 'Liverpool is the Beatles and love, love, love. They and Ann Thompson, who has six other. She was a happy baby, much happier than her eldest brother had been, but as she grew older, Susan began noticing that she, too, appeared lazy, and was not as advanced as Jon. I just think of James and his Dad and about all that fun with his little boy, like I had with Jon.". Other parents came in to complain about attention seeking. Child killer Mary Bell and Maxine Carr, the former girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley, are the others. Ann tried to discourage this by hiding his shoes, or by taking him down to the Walton Lane police station and having the officer on duty frighten him into compliance, but to no avail. Jobs were few and far between. View the profiles of people named Susan Venables. They were sent home to their mother at one point, but after attempting suicide with overdoses, were placed back into care. "The age of criminal responsibility in this country is 10 that's too low. 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. At the trialnine months laterI would learn that Robert Thompson had been among those people. . Robert had asked once before but Jon, who had rarely truanted in his previous school, was scared and said no. 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. The petition, that now has 14,682 signatures, reads: "We want a Public Inquiry into the James Bulger murder case. "Just TV programmes and little things remind me of the good times we had together . King Charles III shakes hands with Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky as he welcomes at Buckingham Palace, in London, ahead of an audience during his first visit to the UK since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Walton Village Financial Services would lend you pounds 300 for Christmas and demand a total of pounds 460 in repayment.
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