"What he's done is wrong so he needs to be punished. 'I walked round for a couple of hours trying to find them. I just think of James and his Dad and about all that fun with his little boy, like I had with Jon.". fn ye vw la. 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. wo. Susan Venabless bent body shrank deeper into itself. I thought he was all right, Jon said of Robert during his police interviews. Jon continued to attend Broad Square, where children of the neighborhood openly mocked and poked fun at his siblings, calling them backward. Jon was also an easy target due to a squint in his eye. But curiosity drew him towards Robert in equal measure. A newspaper man from Detroit said it was because 'Liverpool is the Beatles and love, love, love. 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'.". Truanting, or 'sagging off', had become a way of life for Robert. has prompted a public outcry for an investigation into issues surrounding the case. By then, Robert and Jon had abducted James Bulger from the Strand and attempted to drown him in the nearby canal. The details of Jamess death were sickening. Best of all, they would spend time on the Walton railway line where Robert had built a den close to the bridge. Their kids have got everything. this weekend for breaching the terms of his early release, the parents of both the Bulger killers continue to stand by them. I do believe that she feels guilty deep down for her own part in what happened., Despite the risks of discovery, the relationship is said to have contin- ued to thrive following Thompsons. His body, defiled and broken in two by a train, two miles from where hed been taken, was foundtwo days later. He was always getting prizes for maths at school. That was in September 1991, 17 months before they killed James Bulger. They and Ann Thompson, who has six other. The Radio Merseyside newsroom, where I was working at the time, was full and everyone was on this story one way or another. Once the jury retired, so did the journalists - but we didnt go far. Lawyers for the pair argued that the adult court venue and publicity made it impossible for the schoolboys to be given a fair trial. He had left her to bring up six children alone. 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. Eventually, Bobby walked out on his family, but not before beating his wife one final time. What upsets me is I've no way of bringing him up for the rest of his young years so he's going to lose all his childhood. It is time to examine all this.". Teachers hold placards as they shout slogans while taking part in a protest organised in Manchester as part of a national strike day. Dudson was given a minimum term of 18 years. On one occasion, he said, Robert ran off down the street laughing, "You can't catch me". One could draw some parallels between the film's plot and James Bulger's death. 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. Mrs Venables walked around the area for hours, searching for him. I just heard an almighty screech. Thompson admitted nothing. Ann and Bobby fought regularly in front of the children, with virtually all of the fights leading to physical violence. She said that Jon was always "loving, caring, thoughtful and considerate . "Youngsters are usually tried in a youth court, [Thompson and Venables] were tried in an adult court. He wanted a Rovers strip for his birthday present. Ms Truss has written a 4,000-word essay in todays Sunday Telegraph in which she stood by her plans to boost economic growth during her short tenure in No 10, Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker fails to stop team-mate Joel Matip (not pictured) from scoring an own goal during the Premier League match at Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, A member of the public lines the road into St Michaels on Wyre, Lancashire, with missing posters of Nicola Bulley, 45, as police continue their search for the missing woman who was last seen on the morning of Friday January 27, when she was spotted walking her dog on a footpath by the nearby River Wyre, Not your usual prisoner! Not for long though. Such pleasantries were not for Robbie. 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. 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. Whatever problems she had in her own life, she was always there. . So he came home. . A sudden pause in the tapes and one of the officers appeared in person to describe how he asked Neil and Susan Venables to leave the room because he thought Jon wanted to tell him something. 'We have never really been apart,' Mrs Venables said. . There is, like, a little paint factory. He would throw things at other children, cut himself deliberately with scissors and stick paper all over his face. James Bulger was weeks away from his third birthday, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson behaved very differently in court, Mother who killed her five children euthanised, AOC under investigation for Met Gala dress, The children left behind in Cuba's exodus, Alex Murdaugh jailed for life for double murder, US sues Exxon over nooses found at Louisiana plant, Zoom boss Greg Tomb fired without cause. His grip was so strong that it took two people to pry Jon off of the boy. The haunting words of Jon Venables' parents only interview have resurfaced, twenty five years after he killed tot Jamie Bulger. 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. 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. The officer who questioned Venables took the stand and explained how he had asked Susan Venables to absent herself from the next session as her presence was now inhibiting her son from telling the truth. His mother was not so keen on the idea - they cost pounds 35 each. When they finally came to a disused railway track near the police station, the murderous duo tortured James, throwing stones and bricks at the baby, and kicking and stamping on him before finally dropping a heavy iron bar on to the defenceless tot. 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. 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. But after a year they let Ian out again. If it suited his moodwhich it frequently didBobby would beat the boys, curse at them, and threaten to send them to a home for children who misbehaved. Ironically, Jon was the child who caused his parents least anxiety. Ann denied the physical abuse, but later admitted to being cruel to the boys at times. It set the tone for the years ahead in which there was to be no respite from the hatred. He appears to be a normal human, but inside the soft flesh there is indestructable metal. The abduction and brutal murder of this two-year-old by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who were just 10 at the time, prompted a conversation in Britain that we are still having today. Not that he had any need to borrow his dad's. Jobs were few and far between. 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. The couple, who also have a 13- year-old son, who has learning difficulties, and a 9-year-old daughter, denied that Jon was bullied by his brother or that he watched violent horror films at home. To be absolutely accurate, she had only one illusion. He liked to spend the weekend on the streets. What happened to James Bulger? Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. It is about a Good Guy doll invaded by the spirit of a mass murderer who kills people in gruesome ways. Mrs Venables has also said that she felt. Meanwhile, A petition demanding a public inquiry into James Bulger's murder case has got nearly 15,000 signatures in one day. After spending just eight years in custody, Britain's youngest killers were released and given lifetime anonymity in the UK. A parole board ruled that Thompson and Venables were no longer a threat. For weeks, she stayed in bed, not bothering to tend to the children, and when she finally did reemerge, she readily admitted she drank from morning to night, but had stopped taking the pills. The case is doomed to be picked over by every faction within the caring professionals and politics. "Throughout the conduct of the case there have been a number of issues that have been swept under the carpet. If I wanted to kill a baby, Id kill Id kill me own, wouldnt I?. 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. The distress of one woman who had come agonisingly close to taking James by the hand herself to a police station, only to be hoodwinked by Thompson and Venables that they were doing just that. I didnt connect the dots until much later on. He was jailed for two years before being granted parole again in July 2013. The other shops in the area were also armoured with mesh, including the Red Garden chipper where Robert used to pop in with his brothers most nights for a 25p bag of chips. UK news in pictures 15 February 2023. He's quite bright and clever. 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. They hid his body under bricks so that the first train to come along cut his body in two, but he was already dead before this happened. The beginnings of the friendship were inauspicious enough. But he is not a murderer. Jon, who had the most trouble sleeping, appeared fearful of Susan, and was terrified, above all, of her condemnation. rk ye. The taunts upset Jons already volatile temper, and he began coming home in increasingly low spirits and crying. kl. Thompson did what he often did, looked around, grabbing clumsily at his tongue. In all, they played truant four times. In the years between Venabless first return to prison and this latest conviction he was deemed to be living successfully in the community, when in fact he was working out ways to dodge his internet ban and hiding a computer in his headboard in order to download abusive images of children, including what the judge described this week as serious crimes inflicted on male toddlers. And now The Bulger Killers: Was Justice Done? It was to be an adult trial, both boys appearing every day in the full gaze of whoever was in that room, but neither giving evidence directly to the court. Susan Venables, mother of Jon - referred to throughout the trial as Boy B - blamed her son's 'weakness' for the murder of James Bulger, . Architect Shahed Saleem in the Ramadan Pavilion 2023 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. One of Anns sons claimed that Ann, too, had beaten them with sticks, and had struck one of the boys with a cane. As a result of the incident, Jon's mother decided to move him to another school. Everton was his team. This time we came together in shock and disbelief. Boy A - Robert Thompson - was the shorter and more rounded of the two. It was when Jon turned seven that Susan and the children had relocated to Norris Green, one of Liverpools larger, more reputable areas. 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. what is the bite force of a baboon. "All he said when we've said 'Why didn't you run away?' Mrs Venables described how she searched for Jon. View the profiles of people named Susan Venables. Given the Venables family history, it was later suggested that Jon could arguably have been affected by an undiagnosed disorder at the time, and was clearly emotionally underdeveloped. Regrettably, yet perhaps not entirely unforeseen, the cycle of abuse continued. 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. INSIDE the court sat the two boys, dwarfed by the weight and majesty of the place. They probably weren't out to kill someone, but they were probably out to ruin someone else's happiness. The left will make play of social deprivation, unemployment, bad housing and general inner-city rot. I made notes of the pathologists evidence. He did like to be liked, and loved to have friends, and he has got involved with the wrong person.". 'His mum was more strict. The family was already exhaustingly overextended, and Robert, being the fifth edition, was quick to pick up on the coping mechanisms needed to survive in a life of unremitting chaos and enmity. They had much in common. 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. One of the focal points of the local community was QD Videos at the bottom of Robert's street, where the kids would browse through the horror stacks, discussing their favourites knowledgeably. They were drawn to one another quickly. Robert said 'If you tell anybody I'll get my big brother to batter you up'. Read about our approach to external linking. Jon lived in terror of losing his mother's love, yet he was also terrified of her. 'It's always our family that gets the blame,' Robert said to police after he was arrested for James's murder. In the business world, too many people think it's all about being hard, tough, ambitious, or having grit. WALTON, where they both lived, is, in the jargon of planning, an inner-city urban priority area; neither the best nor the worst the city has to offer. One of the new works by Banksy, appears to show a 1950s housewife, wearing a classic blue pinny and yellow washing up gloves, with a swollen eye and a missing tooth seemingly shoving her male partner into a chest freezer, the piece is set on a white wall backdrop in Kent. For she added: 'But he's not a murderer.'. They didnt kill him in an accident it was premeditated and they tortured that poor baby. I'm bringing up on my own but if I went round and screwed every warehouse my children would have everything too.'. His mind was too restless to take up other hobbies for long. It was on his way back to the interview room when Venables finally admitted it: "We did it. Denise was in court that day. "I think my son's concentration wasn't the way it should have been, but he wasn't slow. Robert said 'If you tell anybody I'll get my big brother to batter you up'. The best instincts led hundreds, including me, to lay flowers a few days later at the site of James horrific end. Apart from Jon's incident with the ruler, there had been no record of previous violence. James Bulger would now be weeks away from his 23rd birthday. Venables was a different creature. Susan Venables Facebook: susan.venables.9 Lives in Mellor, Blackburn With Darwen, . The questioning was calm, steady, even playful at the beginning to try to get a sense the two boys really did know the difference between right and wrong. Jon spent Sunday to Thursday with his mum and the rest of every week with his dad. Natural Landmarks. The pair were handed new identities after being released from prison. After a while the boys became used to it. One day they stayed out until 10.30pm and Jon received a severe reprimand from his mother. Who knows. He didn't want to hurt James. Will you tell his mum I'm sorry?". Venables served seven years of a life sentence for the 1993 murder before he was freed in June 2001, aged 18. Aged 10, he was barely literate. Only a handful of officials and close family members know their true identities. Just four years earlier, we had all covered the Hillsborough disaster and come together in grief. Channel 5 is set to air a new two-part documentary that tells the definitive story of . Trauma? Few had the patience to be friends with him, only his younger brother and a couple of lads who lived nearby. I used to get them for myself at night time. I said no. 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. Robert is not believed to have reoffended - Venables has been convicted twice since being set free. They were intent on killing. 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. He took a jar of paracetamol. Robert passed this down the line bullying his eight-year-old brother into playing truant. The detective explained how, before she left, she soothed him, told him his parents would love him whatever he told the police, reminding him that Denise neededto know what had happened to her baby. I'm warning yer,' she would say. Take him home, the officer would say to her. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. Both boys had been held back a year, and they were put in the same class. For his parents, the fact they were children was actually a cause for hope at that point. He was fearful of the other boy. Child killer Mary Bell and Maxine Carr, the former girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley, are the others. She also had to stay strong for the remaining children. Ironically, the relationship between mother and son improved when he, was behind bars. Ann Thompson and Susan and Neil Venables didn't need to imagine. On countless occasions, Bobby battered his wife, once causing her to miscarry, and his temper didnt stop at his wife. Will you tell his mum I'm sorry?". Grainy CCTV footage later showed the innocent toddler being led away by Venables and Thompson, who marched the little boy through the streets of Bootle for two miles - a walk that would have taken hours given his size. 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. "The report of the Prison Service into an incident at Red Bank secure unit has not been published. I wish we could turn the clocks back,' Mrs Venables, 36, said. Thompson and Venables, now both 27 years old, are among only four individuals in the UK whose crimes are so notorious that they have been given lifelong anonymity. and things like that is that he was frightened. Robert would give Jon presents of stolen objects: trolls, of course, toy terrapins, sweets. . The boys lived off chips. I got on with my job, but months later the impact of that trial had sunk in and a difficult, tearful, confusing year followed for me. But Robert was stuck in Walton with his older brothers and the baby. I know how I feel as a mother. Grainy CCTV footage shows them walking James away from the Strand . Little Bobby went to visit his brothers every so often, eager to show them the latest playthings he had robbed from the assorted shops nearby. 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. 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. "My heart really goes out to them. The right will draw attention to the broken homes, the single parents, the persistent truancy. The two had an aberrant relationship with one another, in the sense that it was almost as though they had never divorced. He would go to bed. Maybe it was that incident that put the idea into Jon or Robbie's head to 'get a little boy lost'. And there were rewards for breaking rules. Keep them apart or he'll get into trouble, they said. They looked, moved, fidgeted, scratched, cried - even sucked their thumbs - just like any 11-year-olds. Both parents hope was that he would make something of his life and eventually find some peace. She got her drinking under control and began giving her murderer son the attention he. Or they would mess around in shops, playing on computer games if Robert had his way, sliding on the polished floors if Jon had his.
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