It was Jon Venables, not Robert Thompson, who had a record of violence, having attempted to throttle another boy at school. ", Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. He said that on the day James was killed, when he went to the school in the afternoon to collect Jon he was told his son was missing. "My heart really goes out to them. After a number of "young girlfriends", it was presumed that Venables was having a delayed adolescence. In September that year, Venables was arrested on suspicion of affray, following a fight outside a nightclub; he claimed he was acting in self-defence, and the charges were later dropped after he agreed to go on an alcohol-awareness course. [141][142] In August 2009, Australia's Seven Network used real footage of the abduction to promote its crime drama City Homicide. Some of the grislier details of the murder of Jamie Bulger may indicate this here to a lesser degree, but while that was a working theory of Merseyside Police for a time, its not widely believed to be a motivator now. In an exclusive interview with Metro.co.uk, the woman, who must remain anonymous to protect Venables' anonymity, revealed she was "seduced by the devil," and only recently found out that she'd actually dated him. VideoOn board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry, I didnt think make-up was made for black girls, Why there is serious money in kitchen fumes. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 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[87], On 27 November 2013, a man from Liverpool received a fourteen-month suspended prison sentence for posting images on Twitter claiming to show Venables. [9] One of the boys threw the blue paint that they had shoplifted earlier into Bulger's left eye. Despite commonly held beliefs, psychopathy is mostly determined genetically. Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with abduction and murder. Early press reports and police statements had referred to Bulger being seen with "two youths" (suggesting that the killers were teenagers), the ages of the boys being difficult to ascertain from the images captured by CCTV. [9] Throughout the day, Thompson and Venables were seen shoplifting various items, including sweets, batteries, a troll doll, and a can of blue Humbrol modelling paint. 3 stories that demonstrate why Trial by Social But in damaged children that are easily influenced? Ann Thompson had been deserted by her husband five years before the killing of Jamie Bulger, and in the week after he left the family home burned down in an accidental fire. Had he gone on to lead such a life, that might have been the last the British public ever heard about Jon Venables. Most people can differentiate between fictional and real savagery, with some experts arguing that fantasy violence can actually relieve real-life urges. To understand their brutal actions, some have claimed that one of the sequels of Childs Play 1991s Childs Play 3 inspired their behaviour. I wish we could turn the clocks back,' Mrs Venables, 36, said. [4], In 1999, lawyers for Thompson and Venables appealed to the European Court of Human Rights that the boys' trial had not been impartial, since they were too young to follow proceedings and understand an adult court. Photograph: PA. Can specific acts of physical or emotional trauma be enough to push a person to violence? Venables was held at the Red Bank secure unit in St. Helens, Merseyside, which was not revealed until after he had been released. Abused as a child, Robert Maudsley killed abusers as an adult, 'She was the brightest thing': The murder of Alesha MacPhail, The link between serial killers and head trauma. The Bulger case has prompted widespread debate about how to handle young offenders when they are sentenced or released from custody. Jon's brother and sister both had learning difficulties and were being taught in separate special schools, while Jon himself was hyperactive and always playing up. . Robert Maudlsey, the real-life Hannibal Lecter and the UK's most dangerous prisoner. The posts were seen by 24,000 people. WebA few days after the body of little Jamie Bulger had been found, Venables and Thompson were taken into custody. [4] The boys received education and rehabilitation; despite initial problems, Venables was said to have eventually made good progress at Red Bank, resulting in him being kept there for the full eight years, despite the facility only being a short-stay remand unit. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. "It is hard to take in really. Had he gone on to lead such a life, that might have been the last the British public ever heard about Jon Venables. [4] Laurence Lee, who was the solicitor of Venables during the trial, later said that Thompson was one of the most frightening children he had seen, and compared him to the Pied Piper. Read about our approach to external linking. Was their upbringing responsible? "[35], The boys were each charged with the murder of James Bulger on 20 February 1993,[9] and appeared at South Sefton Youth Court on 22 February 1993, where they were remanded in custody to await trial. The films - packed full of gore and explicit scenes of violence - easily sparked something of a moral panic the decade before. He had so many injuries it was hard to determine which had been fatal. Susan Venables was the harsher of the two parents and it was of her that Jon was afraid. Then in 2007, he started drinking heavily and taking drugs, including cocaine and the recently-banned substance mephedrone. [84], On 25 February 2013, the Attorney General's Office announced that it was instituting contempt of court proceedings against several people who had allegedly published photographs online showing Thompson or Venables as adults. [4][12] Thompson and Venables had approached James Bulger, took him by the hand, and led him out of the shopping centre. In November 2017, she had published an alleged photograph of Venables on Facebook, with the advice "share this as much as possible". More horrific still was the revelation that his killers were only children themselves, 10 year olds Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. [24][31] When Thompson and Venables were questioned about this aspect of the attack by detectives and a child psychiatrist, Eileen Vizard, the pair were reluctant to give details. Brain damage was extensive and included a haemorrhage. A few days later, Venables and Thompson were arrested and charged - the youngest people to be accused of murder in the 20th Century. He was seen as one of the most successful murder of James It was not until February that it emerged Venables had been recalled to prison for breaching the conditions of his release. Merseyside police clearly didn't like her and briefed the press that her manner in the interview room was inhibiting the confession of her newly-arrested son. "You look at him and you say to yourself, 'How could you be involved in anything like this?'" What was their family background like? Jon Venables "[96] Venables began living independently in March 2002. Some time thereafter, he began a relationship with a woman who had a five-year-old child; it is not known whether Venables had already begun downloading child abuse images at the time of dating the woman, although he denies having ever met the child. He has had security with loving parents and a loving brother and sister.". He had so many injuries it was hard to determine which had been fatal. But things were difficult. Faced with the near-inconceivability of the crime itself, and two suspects below the age at which the law judges young people as morally capable, the media and the public needed surrogate criminals to bear the blame, to be the object of their sense of outrage and desire for retribution. [40] Susan Bailey, the Home Office's forensic psychiatrist who interviewed Venables, said unequivocally that he knew the difference between right and wrong. The Ministry of Justice refused to reveal any details, but the then Justice Secretary Jack Straw did say the recall was prompted by "extremely serious allegations". [149] Bulger's mother circulated a petition to have the film removed from the nominations. [70] Denise married Stuart Fergus, with whom she had two sons. There was a need for an informed public debate on crimes committed by young children. The paper also stated that Bulger family's lawyers had consulted psychiatric experts in order to present the parole panel with a report which suggested that Thompson is an undiagnosed psychopath, citing his lack of remorse during his trial and arrest. The boys joked about pushing Bulger into the canal. Mr Venables said that the two boys had played truant together four times before, adding that he caught them twice. They should instill values and principles in a child but they cannot be there all the time - as Denise Bulger (now Fergus) learned at a terrible cost. He came close to meeting Denise Fergus in 2004 when she managed to One of the overriding motives behind any great act of violence or murder is the urge to be able to effectively exert power and control over your environment. [145] The critical theorist Terry Eagleton introduced his 2010 book On Evil with the story of Bulger's murder. Jon had a reputation for violence at school, often against younger children. In September 2020, he was denied parole. ", Her husband, Neil, said: "If you had a league table of children, you would put him at the bottom of the list for anything like this.". Jon Venables (left) and Robert Thomspon were found guilty of abducting and murdering James (Image: PA) Denise soon realised her son was gone, and an announcement was made over the tannoy. He is far from it. [9] The increased minimum term was overturned in 1997 by the House of Lords that ruled it "unlawful" for the Home Secretary to decide on minimum sentences for young offenders. When a child kills, we need to look at the parents for an explanation. Both men were charged with a public order offence, but this was later dropped. There were some you or I wouldn't want to see, but nothingno scene, or plot, or dialoguewhere you could put your finger on the freeze button and say that influenced a boy to go out and commit murder. "In my judgement," he averred, "the home background, upbringing, family circumstances, parental behaviour and relationships were needed in the public domain so that informed and worthwhile debate can take place for the public good in the case of grave crimes by young children.". The editors of The Sun handed a petition bearing nearly 280,000 signatures to Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, in a bid to increase the time spent by both boys in custody. "I don't think we went wrong at all," Venables maintained rather desperately in a newspaper interview she later gave. "[121] The incident occurred after a man from Exeter posted photographs on a website devoted to identifying paedophiles, allegedly showing Venables as an adult, and revealing his name. In 2008, a new probation officer said that he spent "a great deal of leisure time" playing video games and on the Internet. The killer was 10-years-old when he and Robert Thompson murdered two-year-old The Venables and Thompson families were at very different places on the spectrum of "dysfunctional" families: if the chain of causality between parental failings and juvenile homicide were so straightforwardly simple how many families should be regarded as pathological - potential producers of more child childkillers? They bunked off, they shoplifted, they were violent; all these pieces in a pattern that made up a pair of empty, broken young lives. [41], Thompson and Venables did not speak during the trial, and the case against them was based to a large extent on the more than 20 hours of tape-recorded police interviews with the boys, which were played back in court. Venables worked full-time in a job with anti-social hours, earning close to the minimum wage, the court heard. 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. 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[106] Chief Inspector Tracie O'Gara of Lancashire Constabulary stated: "An individual who was targeted four-and-a-half years ago was not Jon Venables, and now he has left the area. [127] On 5 January 2018, Venables was charged with unspecified offences relating to indecent images of children. He and Robert Thompson were convicted of abducting and killing James Bulger in 1993. Mrs Venables described how she searched for Jon. [42] After his appearances in court, Venables would strip off his clothes, saying: "I can smell James like a baby smell. That much is clear. Born evil: What drove James Bulger's underage killers? The chances of his successful rehabilitation were described as "very high". Trivia. He gets upset. "[35] The prosecution admitted a number of exhibits during the trial, including a box of 27 bricks, a blood-stained stone, Bulger's underpants, and the rusty iron bar described as a railway fishplate. The first involved downloading 57 indecent pictures of children on to his computer between February 2009 and February 2010. On 20 September 2008, he was held on suspicion of affray over a street fight with a man who claimed Venables had attacked his girlfriend. Jonathan Foster reports", "Drug dealer who found James Bulger's body jailed after crashing into family's car", "Death of James Bulger: Pt 4, Ten-Year-Old Suspects", "Death of James Bulger: Pt 5, Robert Denies, Jon Cries", "Liverpool Tries to Reconcile Murder and a Boy Next Door", "James Bulger documentary: Jon Venables so haunted by toddler victim he detected 'baby smell' on everything he wore, C5 show claims", "The secret meetings that set James's killers free", "Bulger ruling: If the defendants could not talk about their crime, how could they conduct a defence? In court, Venables was the more emotional of the two defendants, crying openly and leaning against the shoulder of his social worker. The judge revealed that Venables had been living in Cheshire at the time of the offences, and that the case was dealt with by Cheshire police and Cheshire probation service. She attended the trial at Preston crown court every day, brushed up and manicured, wearing a smart suit, high shoes and clutching her handbag with its gold chain. Where James Bulger killer Jon Venables is now - The Mirror [7], On 2 March 2010, the Ministry of Justice revealed that Venables had been returned to prison for an unspecified violation of the terms of his licence of release. Social worker who looked after Jon Venables As David James Smith, who interviewed Thompson, observed: "Ann lives in terror of being discovered by neighbours or anyone who might recognise her when she is out shopping. "[132], In late June 2019, it was reported that British officials had considered resettling Venables in Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, due to the high costs behind protecting his anonymity. He didn't want to hurt James. [89] The sentence was reduced to 2+12 years on appeal. The Ministry of Justice rejected the call, saying that children over the age of ten knew the difference "between bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing". Research into the James Bulger Murders Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. [135][136], In August 2001, a stage play titled The Age of Consent by Peter Morris was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 'James would be 18 now the pain of losing him will never go away', Michael Jackson's Heal The World released to support new Liverpool James Bulger centre for bullied children, James Bulger's father on surviving 20 years of grief, Jon Venables: how attitudes towards criminality have changed and hardened, Legal dilemma of granting child killers anonymity, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Murder_of_James_Bulger&oldid=1151980385, February 1993 events in the United Kingdom, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 April 2023, at 12:23.
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