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{{short description|1993 child murder in Liverpool, England}} | |||
: ''This article is about James Bulger, the murdered British toddler. For the American wanted by the FBI for murder, see ].'' | |||
{{Use British English|date=February 2020}} | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}} | |||
{{Infobox civilian attack | |||
| title = Murder of James Bulger | |||
| location = ], England | |||
| date = {{start date and age|df=yes|1993|02|12}} | |||
| image = Bulger cctv.jpg | |||
| caption = Bulger being abducted by Thompson (in front of Bulger) and Venables (holding Bulger's hand) in an image captured on shopping centre CCTV | |||
| type = ] by ], ], ], ], ] | |||
| weapons = ]s, ], a ], others | |||
| victim = James Patrick Bulger, aged 2{{Infobox event | |||
| title = <br> | |||
| child = yes | |||
| burial = Kirkdale Cemetery,<br>], Liverpool<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11948260 |title=James Bulger's father demands son's killer Jon Venables is stripped of anonymity |first=Stewart |last=Paterson |date=26 November 2017 |via=www.nzherald.co.nz |access-date=30 August 2020 |archive-date=11 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411015443/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11948260 |url-status=live }}</ref>}} | |||
| perpetrators = {{plainlist| | |||
*Robert Thompson | |||
*Jon Venables | |||
}} | |||
| motive = Inconclusive | |||
| verdict = ] | |||
| convictions = ], ] | |||
{{Infobox event | |||
| title = | |||
| child = yes | |||
| sentence = ] in ] (]d after 8 years) | |||
}} | |||
}} | |||
On 12 February 1993 in ], two 10-year-old boys, '''Robert Thompson''' and '''Jon Venables''', abducted, tortured, and murdered a two-year-old boy, '''James Patrick Bulger''' (16 March 1990<ref name="CNN">{{Cite news |date=22 June 2001 |title=The killers and the victims |publisher=CNN |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/06/21/bulger.profiles/ |url-status=live |access-date=8 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100328110337/http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/06/21/bulger.profiles/ |archive-date=28 March 2010 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> – 12 February 1993).<ref name="legal">{{cite web |url=http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/legalprof/tariffs/tariff_t_v.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051226231440/http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/legalprof/tariffs/tariff_t_v.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 December 2005 |title=Thompson & Venables Recommendations as to Tariffs to the Secretary of State for Home Affairs |date=26 October 2000 |access-date=}}</ref><ref name="STM">{{Cite journal |author=Smith, David James |title=The Secret Life of a Killer |journal=] |url=http://www.pressawards.org.uk/userfiles/files/Winners2011/entries-301100613-01445.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112145748/http://www.pressawards.org.uk/userfiles/files/Winners2011/entries-301100613-01445.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 November 2013 |pages=22–34 |date=3 April 2011}}</ref> Thompson and Venables led Bulger away from the ] in ], after his mother had taken her eyes off him momentarily. His mutilated body was found on a railway line {{convert|2+1/2|mi|km|0|abbr=off|spell=on}} away in ], two days later. | |||
Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with abduction and murder. They were found guilty on 24 November, making them the ] in modern British history. They were sentenced to indefinite detention at ], and remained in custody until a ] decision in June 2001 recommended their release on a lifelong licence at age 18.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/bulger-killers-to-be-released-on-parole-9274011.html |title=Bulger killers to be released on parole |date=22 June 2001 |work=The Independent |access-date=7 February 2018 |language=en-GB |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208005901/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/bulger-killers-to-be-released-on-parole-9274011.html |archive-date=8 February 2018 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Venables was sent to prison in 2010 for breaching the terms of his licence, was released on parole again in 2013, and in November 2017 was again sent to prison for possessing ] images on his computer. He remained in prison in 2023 after his appeals for parole were rejected. | |||
] | |||
The Bulger case has prompted widespread debate about how to handle ]s when they are sentenced or released from custody.<ref name="yorkshirepost">{{cite web |url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/opinion/Paul-Firth-A-question-of.6121871.jp |title=A question of release and redemption as Bulger killer goes back into custody |last=Firth |first=Paul |date=3 March 2010 |work=] |publisher=] |access-date=8 March 2010}}</ref><ref name="bbcvenables">{{Cite web |date=16 July 2024 |title=UPRN Entry for Barton Moss |url=https://www.findmyaddress.co.uk/search?uprn=10007888857 |access-date=16 July 2024 |website=Ordinance Survey Find My Address}}</ref> | |||
'''James Bulger''' (], ] – ], ]) was a ] who was ] and ]ed by two ten year-old boys, '''Jon Venables''' and '''Robert Thompson''', on ], in the ]. The murder of a child by two other children caused an immense public outpouring of shock, outrage and grief, particularly in ] and surrounding towns. | |||
==Timeline== | |||
At the boys' ] in November 1993 they received a minimum term of eight years detention, which was increased to ten years on ]. Over 300,000 people signed a ] organised by a national newspaper which demanded that the British ] ] impose a lengthier sentence. Reacting to this ], Howard duly increased their sentences to a minimum of fifteen years, though this was later reversed as unlawful. | |||
===Prior to the kidnapping=== | |||
] | |||
] (CCTV) at the New Strand Shopping Centre in ] on 12 February 1993 showed Thompson and Venables casually observing children, apparently selecting a target.<ref name="bbc_parole">{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/991849.stm |title=Bulger killers eligible for release |date=26 October 2000 |publisher=BBC |access-date=16 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021224220018/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/991849.stm |archive-date=24 December 2002 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> The boys were playing ] from their local primary school, which they did regularly.<ref name=odnb>{{cite ODNB |last=Davenport-Hines |first=Richard |title=Bulger James Patrick (1990–1993), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/76074 |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/76074 |access-date=2 October 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924161916/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/76074 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |df=dmy-all}} (''Subscription Required'')</ref> Throughout the day, Thompson and Venables were seen ] various items, including sweets, batteries, a ], and a can of blue ] modelling paint.<ref name="trutv_1">{{cite web |last=Scott |first=Shirley |title=Death of James Bulger: Pt 1, The Video Tape |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090121191737/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 January 2009 |date=29 August 2009 |publisher=].com |access-date=29 August 2009}}</ref> One of the boys later said that before abducting Bulger, they were planning to abduct a child, lead him to the busy road alongside the shopping centre, and push him into the oncoming traffic.<ref>{{cite web |last=Blease |first=Stephen |title=Young know what is wrong |url=http://www.nwemail.co.uk/young_know_what_is_wrong_1_517280?referrerPath=write_stuff_2_1793 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605084111/http://www.nwemail.co.uk/young_know_what_is_wrong_1_517280?referrerPath=write_stuff_2_1793 |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 June 2011 |date=23 February 2009 |publisher=] |access-date=29 August 2009}}</ref> | |||
===Abduction=== | |||
Thompson and Venables were released on a ] in June 2001 after serving eight years of their ten year sentence (reduced for good behaviour), when a ] hearing concluded that public safety would not be threatened by their rehabilitation into society. An ] was imposed shortly after the trial preventing the publication of details about the boys for fear of reprisals by members of the public. The injunction remained in force following their release so that details of their new identities and locations could not be published. | |||
That same afternoon, two-year-old James Patrick Bulger, from ], went with his mother, Denise, to the New Strand Shopping Centre. While inside the A.R. Tym's butcher's shop on the lower floor of the centre at around 15:40, Denise, who had let go of her son's hand to pay for her shopping, realised that her son was missing.<ref name="STM" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Sharratt |first=Tom |title=James Bulger 'battered with bricks' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/02/bulger.tomsharratt |date=2 November 1993 |work=The Guardian |access-date=11 March 2010 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105092508/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/02/bulger.tomsharratt |archive-date=5 November 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Thompson and Venables had approached Bulger, taken him by the hand, and led him out of the shopping centre.<ref name="bbc_cctv">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/991562.stm |title=Every parent's nightmare |author=McKay, Mike |work=BBC News |date=26 October 2000 |access-date=2 October 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302174804/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/991562.stm |archive-date=2 March 2012 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="trutv_2">{{cite web |last=Scott |first=Shirley |title=Death of James Bulger: Pt 2, Abduction |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002060559/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/2.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 October 2008 |publisher=].com |access-date=12 March 2010}}</ref> The moment was caught on CCTV at 15:42.<ref name="cctv">{{Cite news |date=2002-08-13 |title=CCTV: Does it work? |language=en-GB |work=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2071496.stm |url-status=live |access-date=2023-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100731065002/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2071496.stm |archive-date=31 July 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.webdoodles.org/webimages/bulger_cctv.jpg |title=Uncropped Mothercare CCTV still of the abduction, showing the timestamp at 15:42:32 |access-date=15 January 2012 |archive-date=6 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306165447/http://www.webdoodles.org/webimages/bulger_cctv.jpg |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
== |
===Torture and murder=== | ||
Thompson and Venables took Bulger to the ], around {{convert|1/4|mi|m|abbr=off}} from the New Strand Shopping Centre, where they dropped him on his head, and he suffered injuries to his face. The boys joked about pushing Bulger into the canal.<ref name="odnb" /><ref name="trutv_3">{{cite web |last=Scott |first=Shirley |title=Death of James Bulger: Pt 3, The Trial |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/3.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002060604/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/3.html |archive-date=2 October 2008 |access-date=29 August 2009 |publisher=]}}</ref> An eyewitness said that when he saw Bulger at the canal, the boy was "crying his eyes out".<ref name="guardian_bystanders" /> The boys went on a {{convert|adj=on|2+1/2|mi|km|0|abbr=off}} walk across Liverpool; they were seen by around 38 people, but most bystanders did nothing to intervene.<ref name="guardian_bystanders">{{Cite news |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/05/bulger |title=James Bulger in distress, say passers-by |first=Edward |last=Pilkington |date=5 November 1993 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221080344/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/05/bulger |archive-date=21 December 2016 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="bystanders">{{Cite news |title=Schoolboy tells of James Bulger's tears: Children said murder case victim was a brother, court told |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/schoolboy-tells-of-james-bulgers-tears-children-said-murder-case-victim-was-a-brother-court-told-1503012.html?cmp=ilc-n |date=9 November 1993 |work=The Independent |access-date=25 March 2010 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107021326/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/schoolboy-tells-of-james-bulgers-tears-children-said-murder-case-victim-was-a-brother-court-told-1503012.html?cmp=ilc-n |archive-date=7 November 2012 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Two people confronted Thompson and Venables, but they either claimed that Bulger was their brother, or that he was lost, and that they were taking him to a police station.<ref name="thetimes">{{Cite news |first=Paul |last=Coslett |title=Murder of James Bulger |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/12/04/local_history_bulger_feature.shtml |publisher=BBC |date=4 December 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090602205545/http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/12/04/local_history_bulger_feature.shtml |archive-date=2 June 2009 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> At one point, the boys took Bulger into a pet shop, from which they were ejected.<ref name="trutv_6">{{cite web |last=Scott |first=Shirley |title=Death of James Bulger: Pt 6, The Trial |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/6.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002060620/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/6.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 October 2008 |date=29 August 2009 |publisher=].com |access-date=29 August 2009}}</ref> | |||
Eventually, the boys arrived in Walton. With Walton Lane Police Station across the road, they hesitated, then led Bulger up a steep bank to a railway line near the former ], close to Walton Park Cemetery.<ref name=odnb /> One of the boys threw the blue paint that they had shoplifted earlier into Bulger's left eye.<ref name="blue paint">{{Cite news |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/feb/09/bulger.childprotection |title=Ten years on |first=Euan |last=Ferguson |date=9 February 2003 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510175640/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/feb/09/bulger.childprotection |archive-date=10 May 2017 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> They kicked him, stamped on him, and threw bricks and stones at him. They placed batteries in Bulger's mouth<ref name="bulger_murder">{{cite web |last=Mikkelson |first=Barbara |date=21 July 2001 |title=Murder of Jamie Bulger |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jamie-bulger/ |access-date=26 May 2022 |website=]}}</ref> and may have inserted some into his anus, although none were found there.<ref name=STM/> Finally, the boys dropped a {{cvt|10|kg|lb|adj=on|abbr=}} railway ] on Bulger.<ref name="pathologist2" /><ref name="guardian_murder">{{Cite news |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/02/bulger.tomsharratt |title=James Bulger murder |first=Tom |last=Sharratt |date=2 November 1993 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105092508/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/02/bulger.tomsharratt |archive-date=5 November 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="guardian2">{{Cite news |first=Paul |last=Coslett |title=Lessons of an avoidable tragedy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/25/bulger2 |work=The Guardian |date=25 November 1993 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510175028/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/25/bulger2 |archive-date=10 May 2017 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> He sustained 10 ]s as a result of the bar striking his head. ] Alan Williams stated that Bulger suffered so many injuries—42 in total—that none could be identified as the fatal blow.<ref name="fractures">{{Cite news |last=Foster |first=Jonathan |title=James Bulger suffered multiple fractures: Pathologist reveals two-year-old had 42 injuries including fractured skull. Jonathan Foster reports|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/james-bulger-suffered-multiple-fractures-pathologist-reveals-twoyearold-had-42-injuries-including-fractured-skull-jonathan-foster-reports-1503297.html |date=10 November 1993 |work=The Independent |access-date=28 August 2009 |location=London, UK |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090829081547/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/james-bulger-suffered-multiple-fractures-pathologist-reveals-twoyearold-had-42-injuries-including-fractured-skull-jonathan-foster-reports-1503297.html |archive-date=29 August 2009 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
Jon Venables and Robert Thompson had skipped school on February 12, 1993. That day, in ] Strand ], they attempted to walk off with a young child. They had succeeded in luring a two year old boy away from his mother, and were in the process of taking him out of the shopping centre when she noticed him missing, ran outside and called him back. For this they were later charged with attempted ], however the charge was dropped when the jury failed to reach a verdict. | |||
Thompson and Venables laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, hoping that a train would hit him and his death would be ruled an accident. After they left the scene, his body was cut in half by a train.<ref name="Sharratt">{{Cite news |first=Tom |last=Sharratt |title=James Bulger 'battered with bricks' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/02/bulger.tomsharratt |work=Guardian |date=2 November 1993 |access-date=14 July 2009 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105092508/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/02/bulger.tomsharratt |archive-date=5 November 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Bulger's severed body was discovered by four boys looking for footballs two days later.<ref name="riley">{{Cite news |first=Neil |last=Docking |title=Drug dealer who found James Bulger's body jailed after crashing into family's car |url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/drug-dealer-who-found-james-13043014 |work=Liverpool Echo |date=17 May 2017 |access-date=31 May 2021 |archive-date=2 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602214450/https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/drug-dealer-who-found-james-13043014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="odnb" /><ref name="trutv_4">{{cite web |last=Scott |first=Shirley |title=Death of James Bulger: Pt 4, Ten-Year-Old Suspects |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/4.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002060609/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/4.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 October 2008 |date=29 August 2009 |publisher=].com |access-date=4 March 2010}}</ref> A ] testified that Bulger died before he was struck by the train.<ref name="Sharratt" /> | |||
] | |||
===Investigation=== | |||
That same afternoon, James Bulger (often called '''Jamie Bulger''' in press reports) from nearby ] had gone on a shopping trip, with his mother Denise. Whilst distracted in a butcher's shop, Mrs Bulger (now Denise Fergus) had allowed James to stand outside in the main concourse of the shopping centre. Within a few minutes, the two boys had taken James by the hand and led him out of the precinct. This moment was captured on a ] camera at 15:39 hrs. | |||
Police suspected that the boys had sexually assaulted Bulger, as his shoes, socks, trousers, and underpants had been removed. The pathologist's report, which was read out in court, found that Bulger's ] had been forcibly pulled back.<ref name="pathologist2">{{Cite news |last=Foster |first=Jonathan |title=James Bulger suffered multiple fractures: Pathologist reveals two-year-old had 42 injuries including fractured skull. |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/james-bulger-suffered-multiple-fractures-pathologist-reveals-twoyearold-had-42-injuries-including-fractured-skull-jonathan-foster-reports-1503297.html |date=10 November 1993 |work=The Independent |access-date=11 March 2010 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202214809/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/james-bulger-suffered-multiple-fractures-pathologist-reveals-twoyearold-had-42-injuries-including-fractured-skull-jonathan-foster-reports-1503297.html |archive-date=2 February 2010 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="pathologist">{{Cite news |last=Sereny |first=Gitta |title=Re-examining the evidence |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/reexamining-the-evidence-a-year-ago-this-week-james-bulger-was-murdered-by-two-11yearold-boys-the-crime-shook-the-nation-the-boys-were-tried-convicted-and-locked-away-but-what-do-we-know-about-them-do-we-know-why-they-did-it-after-months-of-research-including-interviews-with-parents-of-both-boys-we-publish-in-two-parts-the-story-that-has-not-been-told-1392400.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100401044635/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/reexamining-the-evidence-a-year-ago-this-week-james-bulger-was-murdered-by-two-11yearold-boys-the-crime-shook-the-nation-the-boys-were-tried-convicted-and-locked-away-but-what-do-we-know-about-them-do-we-know-why-they-did-it-after-months-of-research-including-interviews-with-parents-of-both-boys-we-publish-in-two-parts-the-story-that-has-not-been-told-1392400.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 April 2010 |date=6 February 1994 |work=The Independent |access-date=10 March 2010 |location=London}}</ref> 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.<ref name="STM" /><ref name="trutv_6" /><ref name="trutv_5">{{cite web |last=Scott |first=Shirley |title=Death of James Bulger: Pt 5, Robert Denies, Jon Cries |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/5.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002060615/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/5.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 October 2008 |publisher=].com |access-date=12 March 2010}}</ref> When Venables was let out on parole, his psychiatrist, ], reported that "visiting and revisiting the issue with Jon as a child, and now as an adolescent, he gives no account of any sexual element to the offence."<ref name="STM" /> | |||
The police quickly found low-resolution video images of two unidentified boys abducting Bulger from the New Strand Shopping Centre.<ref name="odnb" /> The railway embankment upon which his body had been discovered was soon adorned with hundreds of bunches of flowers.<ref name="new_york1">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/24/world/liverpool-tries-to-reconcile-murder-and-a-boy-next-door.html?pagewanted=2 |title=Liverpool Tries to Reconcile Murder and a Boy Next Door |date=24 February 1993 |work=The New York Times |last=Schmidt |first=William E. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171231211858/http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/24/world/liverpool-tries-to-reconcile-murder-and-a-boy-next-door.html?pagewanted=2 |archive-date=31 December 2017 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> The family of one boy, who was detained for questioning but subsequently released, had to flee the city due to threats from ]. The breakthrough came when a woman, upon seeing slightly enhanced images of the two boys on national television, recognised Venables, and remembered seeing him playing truant with Thompson in the Bootle area that day. She contacted the police, and the boys were arrested.<ref name="trutv_4"/> | |||
The youngsters took Bulger on a two-and-a-half-mile walk. At one point they led him to a canal, where James sustained some injuries to his head and face, after apparently being dropped to the ground. Later on in their journey, a witness reported seeing James being kicked in the ribs by one of the boys to encourage him along. | |||
==Legal proceedings== | |||
During the entire walk the two boys and James were seen by 38 people, some of whom noticed an injury to the infant's head and later recalled that he seemed distressed. Others reported that James appeared happy and was seen laughing, the boys seemingly alternating between hurting and distracting him. A few members of the public challenged the two older boys but they claimed that they were looking after their younger brother and were allowed to continue on their way. They eventually led Bulger to a section of railway line near ]. | |||
===Arrest=== | |||
At this location, one of the boys threw blue modelling paint on James's face. They kicked him and hit him with bricks, stones and a 22lb (10kg) iron bar. Before they left him, the boys laid James across the train tracks and weighed his head down with rubble. Two days later, on Sunday of the same week, Bulger's body was discovered. A pathologist later testified that James had died before his body was run over by a goods train. | |||
]s of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson taken at the time of their arrest]] | |||
The fact that the suspects were so young came as a shock to investigating officers, headed by Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby of ]. 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.<ref name=trutv_4/> Forensic tests confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as found on Bulger's body. Both had blood on their shoes; the blood on Thompson's shoe was matched to Bulger's through ] tests. A pattern of bruising on Bulger's right cheek matched the features of the upper part of a shoe worn by Thompson; a paint mark in the toecap of one of Venables's shoes indicated he must have used "some force" when he kicked Bulger.<ref name="blood shoe">{{Cite news |first=Edward |last=Pilkington |title=Blood on boy's shoe 'was from victim' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/11/bulger |work=Guardian |date=11 November 1993 |access-date=14 July 2009 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112152918/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/11/bulger |archive-date=12 November 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Thompson is said to have asked police whether Bulger had been taken to hospital to "get him alive again."<ref name="channel_5">{{Cite news |first=Adam |last=Lusher |title=James Bulger documentary: Jon Venables so haunted by toddler victim he detected 'baby smell' on everything he wore, C5 show claims |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/james-bulger-documentary-jon-venables-robert-thompson-murder-new-revelations-channel-5-guilt-remorse-a8633051.html |work=The Independent |date=14 November 2018 |access-date=15 November 2018 |location=London |archive-date=14 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181114180022/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/james-bulger-documentary-jon-venables-robert-thompson-murder-new-revelations-channel-5-guilt-remorse-a8633051.html |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
The boys were each charged with the murder of James Bulger on 20 February 1993,<ref name=odnb/> and appeared at South Sefton Youth Court on 22 February 1993, where they were remanded in custody to await trial.<ref name=trutv_1/><ref name="bulger_murder"/> In the aftermath of their arrest, and throughout the media accounts of their trial, the boys were referred to as "Child A" (Thompson) and "Child B" (Venables).<ref name="CNN"/> Awaiting trial, they were held in the secure units where they would eventually be sentenced to be detained ].<ref name=STM/> | |||
As the circumstances surrounding the death became clear, ] newspapers compared the killers with ] and ]. They denounced the people who had seen Bulger but not realised the trouble he was in as the "Liverpool 38" (''see:'' ], ]). Within days, the '']'' had published 1086 death notices for Bulger. The railside embankment upon which James' body had been discovered was flooded with hundreds of bunches of flowers: One of these floral tributes was laid by Robert Thompson. Within days, he and Venables were arrested. | |||
===Trial=== | |||
Forensics tests confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as was found on James's body. Both had blood on their shoes; blood on Jon Venables's shoe was matched to James's through DNA tests. | |||
Up to 500 protesters gathered at the ] in the ] during the boys' initial court appearances. The parents of the accused were moved to different parts of the country and assumed new identities following death threats from vigilantes.<ref name=trutv_4/> The full trial opened at ], on 1 November 1993,<ref name="odnb" /> conducted as an ] with the accused in the dock away from their parents, and the judge and court officials in legal regalia.<ref name="bbc_strasbourg" /> The boys denied the charges of murder, abduction and attempted abduction.<ref name="blood shoe" /> The attempted abduction charge related to an incident at the New Strand Shopping Centre earlier on 12 February 1993, the day of Bulger's death. Thompson and Venables had attempted to lead away another two-year-old boy, but had been prevented by the boy's mother.<ref name="trutv_2" /> | |||
Each boy sat in view of the court on raised chairs so they could see out of the dock designed for adults, and were accompanied by two social workers and guards. Although they were separated from their parents, they were within touching distance when their families attended the trial. News stories reported the demeanour of the defendants.<ref name="guardian_harris">{{Cite news |first=Paul |last=Harris |author2=Bright, Martin |title=The secret meetings that set James's killers free |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jun/24/bulger.paulharris |work=The Guardian |date=24 June 2001 |location=London, UK |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112152925/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jun/24/bulger.paulharris |archive-date=12 November 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> These aspects were later criticised by the ], which ruled in 1999 that they had not received a fair trial by being tried in public in an adult court.<ref name="odnb" /> At the trial, the lead prosecution counsel ] successfully rebutted the principle of '']'', which presumes that young children cannot be held legally responsible for their actions.<ref name="doli incapax">{{Cite news |last=Foster |first=Jonathan |title=Bulger ruling: If the defendants could not talk about their crime, how could they conduct a defence? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/bulger-ruling-if-the-defendants-could-not-talk-about-their-crime-how-could-they-conduct-a-defence-739709.html |date=17 December 1999 |work=The Independent |access-date=12 March 2010 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100411080625/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/bulger-ruling-if-the-defendants-could-not-talk-about-their-crime-how-could-they-conduct-a-defence-739709.html |archive-date=11 April 2010 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
==The trial== | |||
Thompson and Venables were considered by the court to be capable of "mischievous discretion", meaning an ability to act with criminal intent as they were mature enough to understand that they were doing something seriously wrong.<ref name="intent">{{Cite news |last=Morrison |first=Blake |title=Let the circus begin |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/apr/11/bulger-trial-juvenile-crime-edlington |date=11 April 2009 |work=The Guardian |access-date=1 February 2015 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222125204/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/apr/11/bulger-trial-juvenile-crime-edlington |archive-date=22 December 2015 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> A child psychiatrist, Eileen Vizard, who interviewed Thompson before the trial, was asked in court whether he would know the difference between right and wrong, that it was wrong to take a young child away from his mother, and that it was wrong to cause injury to a child. Vizard replied, "If the issue is on the balance of probabilities, I think I can answer with certainty." Vizard also said that Thompson was suffering from ] after the attack on Bulger.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gillan |first=Audrey |title=Fear and trauma in courtroom |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/dec/17/bulger.audreygillan1 |date=17 December 1999 |work=The Guardian |access-date=26 July 2010 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112154446/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/dec/17/bulger.audreygillan1 |archive-date=12 November 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> ], the ]'s ] who interviewed Venables, said unequivocally that he knew the difference between right and wrong.<ref name=psychiatrists>{{Cite news |last=Foster |first=Jonathan |title=Right and wrong paths to justice |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/right-and-wrong-paths-to-justice-739587.html |date=2 December 1993 |work=The Independent |access-date=16 March 2010 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107013753/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/right-and-wrong-paths-to-justice-739587.html |archive-date=7 November 2012 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
] | |||
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.<ref name="doli incapax"/> Thompson was considered to have taken the leading role in the abduction process, though it was Venables who had apparently initiated the idea of taking Bulger to the railway line. Venables later described how Bulger seemed to like him, holding his hand and allowing him to pick him up on the meandering journey to the scene of his murder.<ref name=STM/> Laurence Lee, who was the ] of Venables during the trial, later said that Thompson was one of the most frightening children he had seen, and compared him to the ].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/mar/02/ukcrime.prisonsandprobation1 |title='James would be 18 now – the pain of losing him will never go away' |date=2 March 2008 |newspaper=The Observer |access-date=24 August 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921131448/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/mar/02/ukcrime.prisonsandprobation1 |archive-date=21 September 2016 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> After his appearances in court, Venables would strip off his clothes, saying: "I can smell James like a baby smell."<ref name="channel_5" /> 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 ]. The pathologist spent 33 minutes outlining the injuries sustained by Bulger; many of those to his legs had been inflicted after he was stripped from the waist down. ] was extensive and included a ].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/james-bulger-suffered-multiple-fractures-pathologist-reveals-twoyearold-had-42-injuries-including-fractured-skull-jonathan-foster-reports-1503297.html |title=James Bulger suffered multiple fractures: Pathologist reveals two-year-old had 42 injuries including fractured skull. Jonathan Foster reports |first=Jonathan |last=Foster |newspaper=The Independent |location=London |date=10 November 1993 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090829081547/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/james-bulger-suffered-multiple-fractures-pathologist-reveals-twoyearold-had-42-injuries-including-fractured-skull-jonathan-foster-reports-1503297.html |archive-date=29 August 2009 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
In the initial aftermath of their arrest the boys were referred to simply as Child A (Thompson) and Child B (Venables). However, the widely publicised nature of the murder made it inevitable that their names would become known. Public shock at the murder was compounded by the release of ]s taken during initial questioning by police. The pictures showed a pair of frightened children; and many found it hard to believe that such a crime had been perpetrated by two people so young. | |||
The boys, by then aged 11, were found guilty of Bulger's murder at the Preston court on 24 November 1993, becoming the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Edwards |first=Richard |date=4 March 2010 |title=James Bulger case: timeline of key quotations |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7360966/James-Bulger-case-timeline-of-key-quotations.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100307212509/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7360966/James-Bulger-case-timeline-of-key-quotations.html |archive-date=7 March 2010 |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=The Telegraph}}</ref> The judge, ], told Thompson and Venables that they had committed a crime of "unparalleled evil and barbarity{{nbsp}}... In my judgment, your conduct was both cunning and very wicked."<ref>{{cite web |author=Law Lords Department |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/ldjudgmt/jd970612/vandt01.htm |title=Judgments – Reg. v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex parte V. and Reg. v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex parte T |publisher=Publications.parliament.uk |access-date=15 January 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119073610/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/ldjudgmt/jd970612/vandt01.htm |archive-date=19 January 2012 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Morland sentenced them to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, with a recommendation that they should be kept in custody for "very, very many years to come", recommending a minimum term of eight years.<ref name="odnb" /> At the close of the trial, the judge lifted reporting restrictions and allowed the names of the killers to be released, saying: "I did this because the public interest overrode the interest of the defendants{{nbsp}}... There was a need for an informed public debate on crimes committed by young children."<ref name="naming">{{Cite news |url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/philipjohnston/100028218/bulger-killers-identifying-them-was-a-mistake/ |title=Bulger killers: identifying them was a mistake |date=3 March 2010 |work=Daily Telegraph |access-date=8 November 2014 |location=London, UK |first=Philip |last=Johnston |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108101525/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/philipjohnston/100028218/bulger-killers-identifying-them-was-a-mistake/ |archive-date=8 November 2014 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> ] later criticised this decision and outlined the difficulties created by it in his 2010 review of the probation service's handling of the case.<ref name="omand"/> | |||
Five hundred angry protesters gathered at ] Magistrates Court during the boys' initial court appearances. The accused's parents were moved to different parts of the country and had to assume new identities following a series of death threats. | |||
===Post-trial=== | |||
The full trial took place at ] Crown Court. The trial was conducted as an adult trial would have been, with the accused sitting in the dock away from their parents and with the judge and court officials dressed in full legal regalia. Each boy sat in full view of the court on raised chairs (so that they could see out of the dock which was designed for adults) accompanied by two ]s. Although they were separated from their parents, they were within touching distance of them on days that their families attended the trial. News stories frequently reported on the demeanour of the defendents since they were in full view of reporters. (These aspects of the trial were later criticised by the ] who ruled that they had not received a fair trial.) | |||
Shortly after the trial, and after the judge had recommended a minimum sentence of eight years, ], the ], recommended that the two boys should serve a minimum of ten years,<ref name=odnb/> which would have made them eligible for release in February 2003 at the age of 20. The editors of '']'' handed a petition bearing nearly 280,000 signatures to ], the ], in a bid to increase the time spent by both boys in custody.<ref name="Guardian03Mar2010">{{Cite news |last=Siddique |first=Haroon |date=2010-03-03 |title=James Bulger killing: the case history of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/mar/03/james-bulger-case-venables-thompson |url-status=live |access-date=2023-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130709061058/http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/03/james-bulger-case-venables-thompson |archive-date=9 July 2013 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> This campaign was successful, and Howard announced in July 1994 that the boys would be kept in custody for a minimum of fifteen years,<ref name="Guardian03Mar2010" /><ref name="BBC3008191">{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3008191.stm |title=New sentencing rules: Key cases |date=7 May 2003 |publisher=BBC |access-date=11 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040730061644/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3008191.stm |archive-date=30 July 2004 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> meaning that they would not be considered for release until February 2008, by which time they would be 25 years old.<ref name="odnb" /> | |||
] criticised Howard's intervention, describing the increased tariff as "institutionalised vengeance{{nbsp}}... a politician playing to the gallery".<ref name=odnb /> The increased minimum term was overturned in 1997 by the ] that ruled it "unlawful" for the Home Secretary to decide on minimum sentences for young offenders.<ref name=bbc_outrage>{{Cite news |title=Outrage at call for Bulger killers' release |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/492487.stm |publisher=BBC |date=28 October 1999 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222181631/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/492487.stm |archive-date=22 December 2015 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> The ] and European Court of Human Rights have since ruled that although the parliament may set minimum and maximum terms for individual categories of crime, it is the responsibility of the trial judge, with the benefit of all the evidence and argument from both prosecution and defence counsel, to determine the minimum term in individual criminal cases.<ref name=BBC3008191 /> | |||
The boys, who offered no evidence in their defence, were found guilty and were sentenced to imprisonment at a young offenders institution at ''"Her Majesty's Pleasure"'' - a British legal term meaning an indefinite period, reviewed by the Government from time to time that is particularly used as a substitute for ] for minors. The trial judge Justice Morland set their minimum period of incarceration to eight years. This was increased on appeal by the ], ], to ten years and later by the ], ], to fifteen years on the grounds that he was ''"acting in the public interest"''. This decision was widely criticised as Howard appeared to be trying to make a political gain from his role in the judicial process: it was overturned in 1997 by the ]. In October 2000, Lord Chief Justice ] reduced their minimum sentence by two years for their behaviour in detention, effectively restoring the original trial judge's eight year term. | |||
], then ], gave a speech in ] during which he said: "We hear of crimes so horrific they provoke anger and disbelief in equal proportions{{nbsp}}... These are the ugly manifestations of a society that is becoming unworthy of that name."<ref name=odnb /> Prime Minister ] said that "society needs to condemn a little more, and understand a little less."<ref name=odnb /> The trial judge Mr Justice Morland stated that exposure to violent videos might have encouraged the actions of Thompson and Venables; this was disputed by ], the Minister of State at the Home Office at the time, who said that police had found no evidence linking the case with "]".<ref name="video_nasties">{{Cite web |last=Kirby |first=Terry |date=1993-11-26 |title=Video link to Bulger murder disputed |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/video-link-to-bulger-murder-disputed-1506766.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118070353/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/video-link-to-bulger-murder-disputed-1506766.html |archive-date=18 January 2012 |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref> | |||
==Proposed causes== | |||
Some British tabloid newspapers claimed that the attack on Bulger was inspired by the film '']'', and campaigned for the rules on "video nasties" to be tightened.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Morrison |first=Blake |date=2003-02-06 |title=Life after James |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/feb/06/bulger.ukcrime |url-status=live |access-date=2023-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319191744/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/feb/06/bulger.ukcrime |archive-date=19 March 2014 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> During the police investigation, it emerged that ''Child's Play 3'' was one of the films that Venables' father had rented in the months prior to the killing, but it was not established that Venables had ever watched it.<ref name="videos">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/25/bulger |title=Two youngsters who found a new rule to break |newspaper=The Guardian |date=25 November 1993 |access-date=10 March 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223004954/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/25/bulger |archive-date=23 December 2015 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="chucky">{{cite news |last=Nowicka |first=Helen |date=19 December 1993 |title=Chucky films defended |newspaper=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/chucky-films-defended-1468498.html |url-status=live |access-date=11 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107010434/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/chucky-films-defended-1468498.html |archive-date=7 November 2012 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> One scene in the film shows the malevolent doll ] being splashed with blue paint during a ] game. A Merseyside detective said, "We went through something like 200 titles rented by the Venables family. There were some you or I wouldn't want to see, but nothing—no scene, or plot, or dialogue—where you could put your finger on the freeze button and say that influenced a boy to go out and commit murder."<ref name="video_nasties" /> Inspector Ray Simpson of Merseyside Police commented: "If you are going to link this murder to a film, you might as well link it to ''].''"<ref>{{Cite news |date=1999-03-21 |title=Demon ears |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/mar/21/uk.politicalnews2 |url-status=live |access-date=2023-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213090555/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/mar/21/uk.politicalnews2 |archive-date=13 February 2017 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The ] clarified the rules on the availability of certain types of video material to children.<ref name="odnb" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1994/ukpga_19940033_en_11#pt7-pb2-l1g90 |title=Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. Obscenity and Pornography and Videos – Section 90, Video recordings: suitability |publisher=Opsi.gov.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030201647/http://opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1994/ukpga_19940033_en_11 |archive-date=30 October 2007 |url-status=dead |access-date=15 January 2012}}</ref> | |||
===Video violence?=== | |||
===Detention=== | |||
One aspect of the case that gained much media attention was whether Venables and Thompson had been watching violent films in the days and months prior to the murder, and whether or not those movies had contributed to making the pair act in the way they did. The judge mentioned that one of their fathers possessed a large collection of violent videos and that they probably had access to them whilst playing truant from school. '']'' newspaper explicitly named '']'' as a movie they had seen, and printed a full front-page picture of the menacing Chucky, the child-killing doll of that horror series. However, no evidence that the boys had watched such movies was formally presented to the jury, but the case gave rise to a national debate about the acceptability of violent media. Although no films were subsequently banned by the ], several video rental chains voluntarily stopped stocking ''Child's Play 3'' and other titles listed by ''The Sun''. | |||
] | |||
Following the trial, Thompson was detained at , which was then known as Barton Moss Secure Care Centre,<ref>{{Cite web |last=enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk |first=Ofsted Communications Team |date=2024-04-05 |title=Find an inspection report and registered childcare |url=http://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report |access-date=2024-07-16 |website=reports.ofsted.gov.uk}}</ref> in ]. | |||
Venables was detained in Vardy House, a small eight-bedded unit at ] in ] on ]. These locations were not publicly known until after the boys' release.<ref name="STM" /> Details of the boys' lives were recorded twice daily on running sheets and signed by the member of staff who had written them; the records were stored at the units and copied to officials in ]. The boys were taught to conceal their real names and the crime they had committed which resulted in their being in the units. Venables' parents regularly visited their son at Red Bank, just as Thompson's mother did, every three days, at Barton Moss.<ref name="STM" /> 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.<ref name="STM" /> Both boys were reported to suffer ], and Venables in particular told of experiencing nightmares and flashbacks of the murder.<ref name="STM" /> | |||
In early 1994, ], a local ] ] and long-time campaigner against violent movies, commissioned Professor Elizabeth Newson to report on ''Video Violence and the Protection of Children'', in order to bolster his case for an amendment to the forthcoming ]. Her report, which consisted primarily of a review of similar studies from around the world, stated that there was a strong link between video violence and real world violence, and that although correlation does not necessarily imply causation, she believed that there was causation in this case. | |||
The report's method came under fierce criticism from those opposed to Alton's amendment (see e.g. J. McGuigan, ''Culture and the Public Sphere''). | |||
=== |
===Appeal and release=== | ||
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. The court dismissed their claim that the trial was ] but upheld their claim they were denied a ] by the nature of the court proceedings.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bulger killers' trial ruled unfair |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/567440.stm |url-status=live |access-date=2023-04-15 |df=dmy-all |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100429103441/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/567440.stm |archive-date=29 April 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Penrose |first=Justin |date=2010-03-07 |df=dmy-all |title=Jon Venables sent back to prison over child porn offence |newspaper=] |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jon-venables-sent-back-to-prison-205816 |url-status=live |access-date=2023-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100309140837/http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/03/07/jon-venables-sent-back-to-prison-over-child-porn-offence-115875-22090622/ |archive-date=9 March 2010 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Summary of the judgement of the ECHR |date=16 December 1999 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/567631.stm |access-date=15 January 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508091929/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/567631.stm |archive-date=8 May 2012}}</ref> The court also held that the Home Secretary's intervention had led to a "highly charged atmosphere", which resulted in an unfair judgment.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Bulger case chronology |date=16 September 1999 |newspaper=] |location=London, UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/dec/16/bulger2 |access-date=16 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140218212313/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/dec/16/bulger2 |archive-date=18 February 2014}}</ref> On 15 March 1999, the court in ] ruled by 14 votes to five that there had been a violation of ] of ]; regarding the fairness of the trial of Thompson and Venables, they stated: "The public trial process in an adult court must be regarded in the case of an 11 year-old child as a severely intimidating procedure."<ref name=bbc_strasbourg>{{cite news |title=Young suspects 'intimidated' by trial |date=15 March 1999 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/296971.stm |access-date=16 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030707115942/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/296971.stm |archive-date=7 July 2003}}</ref> | |||
In September 1999, Bulger's parents appealed to the European Court of Human Rights but failed to persuade the court that a victim of a crime has the right to be involved in determining the sentence of the perpetrator.<ref name=odnb/><ref>{{cite news |last=Bates |first=Stephen |date=16 September 1999 |title=Bulger's mother puts her case |newspaper=] |location=London, UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/sep/16/bulger.stephenbates |access-date=16 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150104000012/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/sep/16/bulger.stephenbates |archive-date=4 January 2015}}</ref> The European Court case led to the new Lord Chief Justice, ], reviewing the minimum sentence. In October 2000, he recommended the tariff be reduced from ten to eight years,<ref name=odnb/> adding that ] was a "corrosive atmosphere" for the juveniles.<ref name="bbc_release">{{cite news |title=Bulger killers 'released' |date=22 June 2001 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1402527.stm |access-date=16 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217015900/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1402527.stm |archive-date=17 February 2009}}</ref> | |||
Other media commentators blamed the behaviour of Venables and Thompson on their families, or on their social situation, living in one of the most ] areas of the ]. The '']'' described the city at the time of the murder as "a wounded city... The region's economy was on its knees, and unemployment was soaring". A 2001 ] report on ]'s schools said that "the city of Liverpool has the highest degree of deprivation in the country". | |||
In June 2001, after a six-month review, the ] ruled the boys were no longer a threat to public safety and could be released, as their minimum tariff had expired in February of that year. Home Secretary ] approved the decision, and they were released a few weeks later on ] after serving eight years.<ref name=bulger_blunkett_statement>{{cite news |title=Bulger statement in full |date=2001-06-22 |df=dmy-all |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1402798.stm |url-status=live |access-date=2023-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040311225737/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1402798.stm |archive-date=11 March 2004 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name=bbc_bulger_victims_danger>{{cite news |title=Bulger killers 'face dangers' |date=2001-06-24 |df=dmy-all |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1405142.stm |url-status=live |access-date=2023-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040409101846/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1405142.stm |archive-date=9 April 2004 |language=en-GB}}</ref> It was reported that both boys "were given new identities and moved to secret locations under a ']'-like programme."<ref name=witness>{{cite news |first=Peter |last=Walker |date=22 January 2010 |title=Bulger killers prove child criminals can be rehabilitated |location=London, UK |newspaper=] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jan/22/edlington-brothers-bulger-rehabilitation |access-date=13 May 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103233954/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jan/22/edlington-brothers-bulger-rehabilitation |archive-date=3 January 2015}}</ref> This was supported by the fabrication of passports, national insurance numbers, qualification certificates, and medical records. Blunkett added his own conditions to their licence and insisted on being sent daily updates on the boys' actions.<ref name=STM/> | |||
Following the murder, the boys' mothers – Susan Venables and Ann Thompson – were repeatedly attacked in the street, and vilified in the press. | |||
The terms of their release included the following: They were not allowed to contact each other or Bulger's family; they were prohibited from visiting the Merseyside region;<ref name=times_prison>{{cite news |last=Booth |first=Jenny |date=3 March 2010 |title=James Bulger mother: Killer Jon Venables is 'where he belongs' |newspaper=] |location=London, UK |publisher=] |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/james-bulger-mother-killer-jon-venables-is-where-he-belongs-2pqclkqwr58 |url-status=live |access-date=6 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100526183333/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7047752.ece |archive-date=26 May 2010}}</ref> curfews may be imposed on them, and they must report to ]. If they breached the rules or were deemed a risk to the public, they could be returned to prison.<ref name=bbc_blunkett>{{cite news |title=Bulger killers released: What the home secretary said |date=2 March 2010 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8546544.stm |access-date=6 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106070741/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8546544.stm |archive-date=6 January 2022 }}</ref> | |||
Thompson’s father had abandoned his wife and children five years previously, one week before the family home was burned down in an accidental fire. Ann Thompson was a heavy drinker, who found it difficult to control her seven children. Notes (obtained by author Blake Morrison) from an ] case conference on the family described it as "appalling". The children "bit, hammered, battered, tortured each other". Incidents in the report include Philip (the third child) threatening his older brother Ian with a knife. Ian asked to be taken into ], and when he was returned to his family he attempted ] with an ] of painkillers. Both Ann and Philip had also attempted ] in the past. | |||
A court ] was imposed on the media after the trial, preventing the publication of details about Thompson and Venables. The worldwide injunction was kept in force following their release on parole, so their new identities and locations could not be published.<ref name=odnb/><ref>{{cite news |title=Young men, full of remorse |date=2000-10-27 |df=dmy-all |newspaper=] |issn=0261-3077 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/oct/27/bulger |url-status=live |access-date=2023-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510182730/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/oct/27/bulger |archive-date=10 May 2017 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name=gaurdian_bulger>{{cite news |title=James Bulger murder |date=September 2023 |newspaper=] |type=composite of news articles |via=guardian.co.uk |url=https://www.theguardian.com/bulger/0,,192515,00.html |access-date=25 April 2005 |archive-date=19 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519193908/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/bulger |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2001, Blunkett stated: "The injunction was granted because there was a real and strong possibility that their lives would be at risk if their identities became known."<ref name=bbc_blunkett/> | |||
Jon Venables's family was less chaotic; although his parents were also separated, they lived near to each other, and he lived at his father's house two days a week. Both his older brother and his younger sister had ] which were severe enough to make it necessary that they attend ] schools (for children too disabled to be taught in the mainstream system). Jon himself was ], and had attempted to throttle another boy in a fight at school. The police had been called to Susan Venables's house in 1987, when she had left her children (then aged 3, 5 and 7) alone in the house for 3 hours. Case notes from that incident describe Susan's "severe ] problem" and ] tendencies. | |||
==Later developments== | |||
===Multiple causes?=== | |||
=== Dissolution of James Bulger's family === | |||
Another report on children and video violence was published in 1998; it was commissioned by the ] in 1995 in response to fears raised by Bulger's murder. The authors, Dr Kevin Browne and Amanda Pennell of ], emphasised the link between a violent home background and offending: | |||
In the months after the trial, and following the birth of their second son, the marriage of Bulger's parents, Ralph and Denise, broke down; they divorced in 1995.<ref>{{cite news |title=The bad seeds |date=11 February 2013 |newspaper=] |location=Sydney, NSW, AU |url=http://www.smh.com.au/world/the-bad-seeds-20130210-2dt7k.html |access-date=19 May 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519193911/https://www.smh.com.au/world/the-bad-seeds-20130204-2dt7k.html |archive-date=19 May 2022 }}</ref> | |||
Denise Bulger later married Stuart Fergus, with whom she had two sons.<ref>{{cite news |first=Susan |last=Lee |date=11 February 2013 |title=Twenty years after the murder of Liverpool toddler James Bulger, his mum Denise Fergus reflects on the past and the battles still to come |newspaper=] |url=http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/twenty-years-after-murder-liverpool-3322165 |access-date=8 November 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108105834/http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/twenty-years-after-murder-liverpool-3322165 |archive-date=8 November 2014 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Ralph Bulger also remarried, and had three daughters with his second wife.<ref>{{cite news |first=Will |last=Pavia |date=8 March 2010 |title='It was like my son had been taken again' |newspaper=] |location=London, UK |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7053350.ece |access-date=11 March 2010 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100603050050/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7053350.ece |archive-date=3 June 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Bulger's father visits murder scene |publisher=BBC |date=4 February 2003 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2723145.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080321064311/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2723145.stm |archive-date=21 March 2008 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
<blockquote>Our research cannot prove whether video violence causes crime. But it does highlight the importance of family background and the offender's own personality and thoughts in determining the effects of film violence.</blockquote> | |||
=== Bulger memorial and legal activism === | |||
<blockquote>The research points to a pathway from having a violent home background, to being an offender, to be being more likely to prefer violent films and violent actors. Distorted perceptions about violent behaviour, poor empathy for others and low moral development all enhance the adoption of violent behaviour and violent film preferences. </blockquote> | |||
On 14 March 2008, an appeal to set up a ] in Merseyside in memory of James Bulger was launched by his mother and ].<ref name=bbc_memorial>{{cite news |title=Bulger 'refuge' appeal launched |date=14 March 2008 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7295910.stm |url-status=live |access-date=13 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080317225041/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7295910.stm |archive-date=17 March 2008 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name=telegraph_memorial>{{cite news |last=Franklin |first=Katie |date=14 March 2008 |title=James Bulger memorial appeal launched |newspaper=] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581652/James-Bulger-memorial-appeal-launched.html |url-status=live |access-date=13 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080316074800/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2008%2F03%2F14%2Fnbulger114.xml |archive-date=16 March 2008 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> A memorial garden in Bulger's memory was created in Sacred Heart Primary School in his hometown of Kirkby, the school he would have been expected to attend had he not been murdered.<ref name=odnb/> | |||
In March 2010, a call was made by England's Children's commissioner ] to raise the age of criminal responsibility from ten to twelve. She said that the killers of James Bulger should have undergone "programmes" to help turn their lives around, rather than being prosecuted. The ] rejected the call, saying that children over the age of ten knew the difference "between bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing".<ref name=atkinson>{{cite news |title=Calls to raise age of criminal responsibility rejected |date=13 March 2010 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8565619.stm |access-date=13 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111215181605/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8565619.stm |archive-date=15 December 2011 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
==Appeal and release== | |||
===Court protective injunction and violations=== | |||
In 1999 lawyers acting for Venables and Thompson appealed to the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that the boys' trial had not been impartial since they were too young to be able to follow the proceedings and understand the workings of an adult court. They also claimed that Howard's intervention led to a ''"charged atmosphere"'', making a fair trial impossible. The Court found in the boys' favour. | |||
During Venables' and Thompson's incarcerations, the court order protecting their identities was renewed, but details about them, both real and fabricated, gradually leaked into the press and via the internet. | |||
==== Early reports about prison life ==== | |||
The European Court case led to the new Lord Chief Justice, ], reviewing the minimum sentence imposed. In October 2000 he recommended that the tariff be reduced from ten to eight years, adding that young offenders institutions were a "corrosive atmosphere" for the juveniles. | |||
'']'' revealed that both Venables and Thompson had passed their ]s and ] during their sentences. The paper also stated that the Bulger family's lawyers had consulted psychiatric experts in order to present the parole panel with a report that suggested Thompson is an undiagnosed ], citing his lack of remorse during his trial and arrest. That report was ultimately dismissed; however, Thompson's lack of remorse at the time, in stark contrast to Venables, led to considerable scrutiny from the parole panel. Upon release, both Thompson and Venables had lost all trace of their ] accent.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Paul |last1=Harris |first2=Martin |last2=Bright |date=24 June 2001 |orig-date=23 June 2001 |title=The secret meetings that set James's killers free |newspaper=] |agency=] |location=London, UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jun/24/bulger.paulharris |access-date=3 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112152925/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jun/24/bulger.paulharris |archive-date=12 November 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
In a psychiatric report prepared in 2000 before Venables' release, he was described as posing a "trivial" risk to the public and unlikely to reoffend. The chances of his successful rehabilitation were described as "very high".<ref>{{cite news |first=Aislinn |last=Laing |date=10 March 2010 |title=Bulger killer Jon Venables posed 'trivial' risk to the public, said psychiatrist |newspaper=] |location=London, UK |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7409376/Bulger-killer-Jon-Venables-posed-trivial-risk-to-the-public-said-psychiatrist.html |access-date=10 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100313161006/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7409376/Bulger-killer-Jon-Venables-posed-trivial-risk-to-the-public-said-psychiatrist.html |archive-date=13 March 2010 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
In June 2001, after a six-month review of the case, the ] ruled that the boys were no longer a threat to public safety and were thus eligible for release now that the minimum tariff had expired. The decision was approved by the Home Secretary, ], and they were both released that summer. They will live out their lives on a "]" which allows for their immediate re-incarceration if they break the terms of their release, that is if they are seen to be a danger to the public. | |||
The '']'' published details that suggested the names of the secure institutions in which the pair were housed, in breach of the injunction against publicity that had been renewed early in 2001. In December that year, the paper was fined £30,000 for ] and ordered to pay costs of £120,000.<ref>{{cite news |last=Dyer |first=Clare |date=5 December 2001 |title=Paper fined for Bulger order breach |newspaper=] |location=London, UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/dec/05/bulger.uknews |access-date=15 April 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140510004314/http://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/dec/05/bulger.uknews |archive-date=10 May 2014 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> No significant publication or vigilante action against Thompson or Venables has occurred. Despite this, Bulger's mother, Denise, told how in 2004 she received a tip-off from an anonymous source that helped her locate Thompson. Upon seeing him, she was "paralysed with hatred", and was unable to confront him.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Bulger mother 'sees son's killer' |date=28 November 2004 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4048957.stm |access-date=26 October 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213172024/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4048957.stm |archive-date=13 February 2009 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
The '']'' provoked controversy by naming the secure institutions in which the pair were housed, and this was in possible breach of the injunction against press publicity which had been renewed early in 2001. In December of that year the paper was found guilty of ] and fined ]30,000 and ordered to pay costs of £120,000. | |||
In April 2007, documents released under the ] confirmed that the Home Office had spent £13,000 on an injunction to prevent a foreign magazine from revealing the new identities of Thompson and Venables.<ref name="13k_protect_killers">{{cite web |title=£13K to protect Bulger killers' new IDs-injunction |date=8 April 2007 |website=] |url=http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1259668,00.html |via=news.sky.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070410075357/http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0%2C%2C30100-1259668%2C00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 April 2007 |access-date=8 April 2007}}</ref><ref name=protect_killers>{{cite news |last=Barrett |first=David |date=9 April 2007 |title=£13,000 spent protecting Bulger killers' identities |newspaper=] |location=London, UK |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2434965.ece |access-date=13 April 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112044228/http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2434965.ece |archive-date=12 January 2008 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
The injunction against the press reporting on the boys' whereabouts applies only in ] and ], and newspapers in ] or other countries can legally publish such information. With easy cross-border communications due to the ], many expected their identities and whereabouts to quickly become public knowledge. Indeed in June 2001, Venables' mother was quoted by the '']'' as saying that she expected her son to be "dead within four weeks" of release. Her lawyers lodged a formal complaint with the ] saying that Mrs Venables had said no such thing. By that time however, the phrase had been widely re-reported. As of 2004, no publication of their new identites or vigilante action has come to pass. | |||
==== False identification and internet trolling ==== | |||
==Similar events== | |||
In April 2010, a 19-year-old man from the ] was given a three-month ] for falsely claiming in a ] message that one of his former colleagues was Thompson. In passing sentence, Deputy High Bailiff Alastair Montgomerie said that the teenager had "put that person at significant risk of serious harm" and in a "perilous position" by making the allegation.<ref name="isle of man bbc">{{cite news |title=Man sentenced for lying over James Bulger killer |date=23 April 2010 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/isle_of_man/8641162.stm |access-date=26 April 2010 |archive-date=19 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519193929/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/isle_of_man/8641162.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
In March 2012, a 26-year-old man from ], ], was arrested after allegedly setting up a Facebook group with the title "What happened to Jamie Bulger was fucking hilarious". The man's computer was seized for further investigations.<ref name=chorley>{{cite news |last=McConville |first=Tony |date=6 March 2012 |title=Denise Fergus calls for crack down after sickening James Bulger ''Facebook'' group |website=Click Liverpool (clickliverpool.com) |url=http://www.clickliverpool.com/news/national-news/1215471-denise-fergus-calls-for-crack-down-after-sickening-james-bulger-facebook-group.html |url-status=unfit |access-date=7 March 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119121156/http://www.clickliverpool.com/news/national-news/1215471-denise-fergus-calls-for-crack-down-after-sickening-james-bulger-facebook-group.html |archive-date=19 January 2013}}</ref> | |||
==== Internet photo posts ==== | |||
On 25 February 2013, the ] announced that it was instituting contempt of court proceedings against several people who had allegedly published photographs online showing Thompson or Venables as adults.<ref name=contempt_2>{{cite news |title='Bulger killer Jon Venables images' appear online |date=14 February 2013 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-21455860 |access-date=25 February 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130217055552/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-21455860 |archive-date=17 February 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> A spokesman commented: | |||
:"There are many different images circulating online claiming to be of Venables or Thompson; potentially innocent individuals may be wrongly identified as being one of the two men and placed in danger. The order, and its enforcement, is therefore intended to protect not only Venables and Thompson, but also those members of the public who have been incorrectly identified as being one of the two men."<ref name=contempt>{{cite news |title=Attorney general takes action over 'Bulger killer images' |date=25 February 2013 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-21577475 |access-date=25 February 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130225170501/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-21577475 |archive-date=25 February 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
On 26 April 2013, two men received suspended jail sentences of nine months after admitting to contempt of court, by publishing photographs that they claimed to be of Venables and Thompson on Facebook and Twitter. The posts were seen by 24,000 people. According to ] legal correspondent Clive Coleman, the purpose of the prosecution was to ensure that the public was aware that Internet users were also subject to the law of contempt.<ref name=bbc_contempt>{{cite news |title='Bulger killers' images': Two admit contempt of court |date=26 April 2013 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22310412 |access-date=26 April 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130428055308/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22310412 |archive-date=28 April 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
On 27 November 2013, a man from Liverpool received a 14-month suspended prison sentence for posting images on Twitter claiming to show Venables.<ref name=bbc_contempt2>{{cite news |title='James Bulger killer picture': James Baines sentenced |date=27 November 2013 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-25122155 |access-date=28 November 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131130031258/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-25122155 |archive-date=30 November 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
On 31 January 2019, a man and a woman pleaded guilty to eight contempt-of-court offences at the High Court after they admitted to posting photos on social media that they claimed identified Venables; both received suspended prison sentences.<ref>{{cite news |title=Two admit posting 'Bulger killer photos' |date=2019-01-31 |df=dmy-all |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-47074573 |url-status=live |access-date=2019-01-31 |language=en-GB |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190131180433/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-47074573 |archive-date=31 January 2019}}</ref> In March 2019, actress ] was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence for posting Venables' alleged identity on Facebook.<ref>{{cite news |title=Tina Malone avoids jail for contempt of court over Bulger killer ''Facebook'' post |date=13 March 2019 |newspaper=The Rhyl Journal |agency=] |language=en-GB |url=https://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/news/national/17497676.tina-malone-avoids-jail-for-contempt-of-court-over-bulger-killer-facebook-post/ |access-date=3 April 2019 |via=rhyljournal.co.uk |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403141816/https://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/news/national/17497676.tina-malone-avoids-jail-for-contempt-of-court-over-bulger-killer-facebook-post/ |archive-date=3 April 2019 }}</ref> | |||
In January 2020, a 53-year-old woman from ] in ] received a prison sentence of eight months, suspended for 15 months: in November 2017, she had published an alleged photograph of Venables on Facebook, with the advice "share this as much as possible". Lord Justice ] said that the offence was "close to the line" for an immediate prison sentence, but suspended the sentence after observing an early admission of guilt and remorse by the woman.<ref>{{cite news |title=Jon Venables: Woman who posted picture said to show killer avoids jail |date=24 January 2020 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51233590 |access-date=19 February 2020 |archive-date=25 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125141004/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51233590 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
=== Trolling and stalking of James' mother === | |||
On 14 July 2016, a woman from ] in ] was jailed for three years after sending Twitter messages to Bulger's mother, in which she posed as one of his killers, and as Bulger's ghost.<ref name="margate">{{cite news |title=Margate woman jailed for 'cruel' James Bulger tweets |date=14 July 2016 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36794888 |access-date=14 July 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160714161024/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36794888 |archive-date=14 July 2016 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> The sentence was reduced to {{frac|2|1|2}} years on appeal.<ref name=reduced>{{cite news |last=Duffy |first=Tom |date=12 October 2016 |title=Web troll who targeted James Bulger's mum has sentence reduced on appeal |newspaper=] |url=http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/web-troll-who-targeted-james-12016026 |via=liverpoolecho.co.uk |url-status=live |access-date=26 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161026172021/http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/web-troll-who-targeted-james-12016026 |archive-date=26 October 2016 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
On 25 October 2016, a man was jailed for 26 weeks for stalking Denise Fergus; he had previously received a police warning for stalking her in 2008.<ref name=stalker>{{cite news |last=Bunyan |first=Nigel |date=25 October 2016 |title=Man jailed for stalking mother of murdered toddler James Bulger |newspaper=] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/25/man-jailed-stalking-mother-murdered-toddler-james-denise-bulger |url-status=live |access-date=26 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161025202547/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/25/man-jailed-stalking-mother-murdered-toddler-james-denise-bulger |archive-date=25 October 2016 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
===Later life of Jon Venables=== | |||
==== Relationships ==== | |||
Shortly before his 2001 release, when aged 17, Venables was alleged to have had sex with a woman who worked at the ] where he was held. In April 2011, in the aftermath of his 2010 imprisonment, these allegations were outlined in a '']'' article written by David James Smith, who had been following the Bulger case since the 1993 trial, and again later in a BBC documentary titled ''Jon Venables: What went wrong?'' The female staff member was suspended for sexual misconduct; she never returned to work at Red Bank.<ref name=STM/><ref>{{cite web |last=Sharp |first=Aaron |date=27 March 2011 |title=Mother of James Bulger calls for Venables parole inquiry after reports he slept with carer |url=http://www.clickliverpool.com/news/national-news/1212824-mother-of-murdered-toddler-james-bulger-calls-for-inquiry-into-jon-venables-parole-after-reports-he-had-sex-with-carer.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120729013022/http://www.clickliverpool.com/news/national-news/1212824-mother-of-murdered-toddler-james-bulger-calls-for-inquiry-into-jon-venables-parole-after-reports-he-had-sex-with-carer.html |archive-date=29 July 2012 |access-date=15 January 2012 |publisher=Click Liverpool}}</ref> A spokesman for ] denied that the incident had been covered up, saying, "All allegations were thoroughly investigated by an independent team on the orders of the Home Office and chaired by Arthur de Frischling, a retired prison governor."<ref name=cover_up_denial>{{cite news |first=Tony |last=McConville |date=28 March 2011 |title=Cover-up denial in case of Bulger killer's sex romps |website=Click Liverpool |url=http://www.clickliverpool.com/news/national-news/1212839-cover-up-denial-in-case-of-bulger-killers-sex-romps.html |access-date=24 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119120546/http://www.clickliverpool.com/news/national-news/1212839-cover-up-denial-in-case-of-bulger-killers-sex-romps.html |archive-date=19 January 2013}}</ref> | |||
==== Misdemeanours while on release 2002–2008 ==== | |||
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.<ref name=STM/> | |||
After a period of apparently reduced supervision, Venables began excessively drinking, taking drugs, and downloading child abuse images, as well as visiting Merseyside, which was a breach of his licence. In September 2002, Venables was arrested on suspicion of ], 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. Three months later, he was found to be in possession of ]; he was subjected to a curfew.<ref name=STM/> | |||
In 2005, when Venables was age 23, his probation officer met another girlfriend of his, who was aged 17. After a number of "young girlfriends", it was presumed that Venables was having a ].<ref name=STM/> In 2008, a new probation officer said that Venables spent "a great deal of leisure time" playing ]s and on the Internet.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} | |||
On two occasions, Jon Venables revealed his true identity to a friend.<ref name=bbcvenables/>{{Failed verification|date=July 2024|reason=Citation seems to just be geography/address data}} | |||
==== 2010 imprisonment ==== | |||
Venables contacted his probation officer in February 2010, reporting that he feared that his new identity had been compromised at his place of work. When the officer arrived at his flat, Venables was attempting to remove or destroy the ] of his computer with a knife and a tin opener.<ref name=STM/> The officer's suspicions were aroused, and the computer was taken away for examination leading to the discovery of the child sexual abuse material, which included children as young as two being raped by adults,<ref name=dawn>{{Cite news |last=Pidd |first=Helen |date=23 July 2010 |title=Child porn charges send James Bulger's killer back to jail |newspaper=] |location=London, UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jul/23/james-bulger-killer-jon-venables |url-status=live |access-date=24 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103225113/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jul/23/james-bulger-killer-jon-venables |archive-date=3 January 2015 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name=independent_jailed>{{cite news |title=Jon Venables jailed for two years over child porn |date=23 July 2010 |newspaper=] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jon-venables-jailed-for-two-years-over-child-porn-2033788.html |access-date=24 July 2010 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100725071909/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jon-venables-jailed-for-two-years-over-child-porn-2033788.html |archive-date=25 July 2010 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> and penetrative rape of seven- or eight-year-olds.<ref name=STM/> | |||
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. Justice Secretary ] stated that Venables had been returned to prison because of "extremely serious allegations", and stated that he was "unable to give further details of the reasons for Jon Venables' return to custody, because it was not in the public interest to do so".<ref name=bbc_straw>{{cite news |title=Bulger killer Venables faces 'extremely serious' claim |date=6 March 2010 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8553056.stm |access-date=6 March 2010 |archive-date=19 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519193916/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/8553056.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> On 7 March, media reports said that he had been accused of offences related to possession of ].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jamieson |first=Alastair |date=7 March 2010 |title=James Bulger killer Jon Venables 'accused of child porn offences' |newspaper=] |location=London, UK |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7390615/James-Bulger-killer-Jon-Venables-accused-of-child-porn-offences.html |url-status=live |access-date=7 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100310012548/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7390615/James-Bulger-killer-Jon-Venables-accused-of-child-porn-offences.html |archive-date=10 March 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first1=Alison |last1=Chung |first2=Tom |last2=Bonnett |date=8 March 2010 |title=Bulger killer Jon Venables jailed again 'for child porn' |website=news.com.au |url=http://www.news.com.au/world/bulger-killer-jon-venables-jailed-again-for-child-porn/story-e6frfkyi-1225837945932 |access-date=7 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100310074851/http://www.news.com.au/world/bulger-killer-jon-venables-jailed-again-for-child-porn/story-e6frfkyi-1225837945932 |archive-date=10 March 2010 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name=guardian_2010>{{cite news |last=Walker |first=Peter |date=7 March 2010 |title=Jon Venables back in prison 'over child pornography offences' |newspaper=] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/mar/07/jon-venables-alleged-child-porn-offences |url-status=live |access-date=8 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108112126/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/mar/07/jon-venables-alleged-child-porn-offences |archive-date=8 November 2014 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
In a statement to the ] on 8 March 2010, Straw reiterated that it was "not in the interest of justice" to reveal the reason why Venables had been returned to custody.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jenkins |first1=Russell |last2=Ford |first2=Richard |date=4 March 2010 |title=Jack Straw refuses to reveal why Bulger killer has returned to jail |newspaper=] |issn=0140-0460 |language=en-GB |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jack-straw-refuses-to-reveal-why-bulger-killer-has-returned-to-jail-c58s6tm8kdl |access-date=2023-04-15 }}</ref> ], the judge who made the decision to grant Venables anonymity in 2001, warned that Venables could be killed if his identity was revealed.<ref>{{cite news |date=2010-03-08 |title=Ex-judge backs Venables anonymity |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8556826.stm |url-status=live |access-date=2023-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827174409/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8556826.stm |archive-date=27 August 2017 |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
Bulger's mother, Denise Fergus, said she was angry that the parole board did not tell her that Venables had been returned to prison, and called for his anonymity to be removed if he was charged with a crime.<ref name=bbc_fergus>{{cite news |title=Bulger's mother says Venables 'should be identified' |date=6 March 2010 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8553634.stm |access-date=6 March 2010 |archive-date=19 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519193916/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8553634.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice stated that there was a worldwide injunction against publication of either killer's location or new identity.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dodd |first=Vikram |date=2010-03-02 |df=dmy-all |title=James Bulger killer back in prison |newspaper=] |issn=0261-3077 |language=en-GB |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/mar/02/james-bulger-jon-venables-prison |url-status=live |access-date=2023-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510182530/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/mar/02/james-bulger-jon-venables-prison |archive-date=10 May 2017}}</ref> Venables' return to prison revived a false claim that a man from ], ], was Venables. While the claim was reported and dismissed in September 2005,<ref name="blackpool gazette 2005">{{cite web |title=I'm living in fear over 'child killer' rumours |date=10 September 2005 |newspaper=] |url=http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Im-living-in-fear-over.1142127.jp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100311211400/http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Im-living-in-fear-over.1142127.jp |archive-date=11 March 2010 |access-date=10 March 2010 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> it reappeared in March 2010 when it was circulated widely via SMS messages and Facebook.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Carter |first=Helen |title=My ordeal at being mistaken for Jon Venables: Terror of young father accused of being Bulger killer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/mar/09/david-calvert-jon-venables-facebook-jamie-bulger |date=9 March 2010 |work=The Guardian |access-date=8 November 2014 |location=London, UK |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108110821/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/mar/09/david-calvert-jon-venables-facebook-jamie-bulger |archive-date=8 November 2014 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Chief Inspector Tracie O'Gara of ] stated: "An individual who was targeted four-and-a-half years ago was not Jon Venables, and now he has left the area."<ref name=calvert>{{cite news |first=Andrew |last=Hough |date=10 March 2010 |title=Jon Venables: Man wrongly accused of being James Bulger killer 'living in fear of vigilantes' |newspaper=] |location=London, UK |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7412162/Jon-Venables-man-wrongly-accused-of-being-Bulger-killer-living-in-fear-of-vigilantes.html |access-date=11 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100312225204/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7412162/Jon-Venables-man-wrongly-accused-of-being-Bulger-killer-living-in-fear-of-vigilantes.html |archive-date=12 March 2010 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="blackpool gazette">{{cite web |title='I'm not Jon Venables' |date=10 March 2010 |newspaper=] |url=http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Im-not-Jon-Venables.6137991.jp |url-status=dead |access-date=10 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100311230329/http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Im-not-Jon-Venables.6137991.jp |archive-date=11 March 2010 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
On 21 June 2010, Venables was charged with possession and distribution of indecent images of children. It was alleged that he had downloaded 57 indecent images of children over a 12-month period to February 2010, and had allowed other people to access the files through a ] network. Venables faced two charges under the ].<ref name=bbc_porn_charges>{{cite news |title=Bulger killer Jon Venables faces child porn charges |date=21 June 2010 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10369277.stm |access-date=21 June 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519193922/https://www.bbc.com/news/10369277 |archive-date=19 May 2022 }}</ref><ref name=standard_porn_charges>{{cite news |last=Cheston |first=Paul |date=21 June 2010 |title=James Bulger killer Jon Venables is 'suspected paedophile' |newspaper=] |url=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23847494-james-bulger-killer-jon-venables-is-suspected-paedophile.do |url-status=dead |access-date=21 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100624021137/http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23847494-james-bulger-killer-jon-venables-is-suspected-paedophile.do |archive-date=24 June 2010}}</ref> On 23 July, Venables appeared at a court hearing at the ] via a video link, visible only to the judge hearing the case.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rayner |first=Gordon |date=23 July 2010 |title=James Bulger killer Jon Venables jailed for two years for downloading child pornography |newspaper=] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7906539/James-Bulger-killer-Jon-Venables-jailed-for-two-years-for-downloading-child-pornography.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827170331/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7906539/James-Bulger-killer-Jon-Venables-jailed-for-two-years-for-downloading-child-pornography.html |archive-date=27 August 2017 }}</ref> He pleaded guilty to charges of downloading and distributing child sexual abuse material, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment.<ref name=sky_porn_charges>{{cite news |last=Jack |first=Andy |date=23 July 2010 |title=James Bulger Killer guilty of child porn |website=] |url=http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Jon-Venables-Appears-By-Video-Link-At-Old-Bailey-On-Child-Pornography-Charges/Article/201007415669778?lpos=UK_News_Carousel_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15669778_Jon_Venables_Appears_By_Video-Link_At_Old_Bailey_On_Child_Pornography_Charges |url-status=dead |access-date=23 July 2010 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130202193321/http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Jon-Venables-Appears-By-Video-Link-At-Old-Bailey-On-Child-Pornography-Charges/Article/201007415669778?lpos=UK_News_Carousel_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15669778_Jon_Venables_Appears_By_Video-Link_At_Old_Bailey_On_Child_Pornography_Charges |archive-date=2 February 2013}}</ref> At the court hearing, it emerged that Venables had posed in online chat rooms as 35-year-old Dawn "Dawnie" Smith, a supposedly married woman from Liverpool, who boasted about abusing her 8-year-old daughter, in the hope of obtaining further child sexual abuse material.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} | |||
The judge, Mr. Justice ], ruled that Venables' new identity could not be revealed, but the media were allowed to report that he had been living in ] at the time of his arrest.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Spence |first1=Alex |date=21 December 2010 |type=profile |title=Mr. Justice Bean |newspaper=] |place=London, UK |url=http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/law/article2851589.ece |access-date=7 March 2016 |archive-date=7 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307170135/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/law/article2851589.ece |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Jon_Venables_Pleads_Guilty>{{cite news |first=Helen |last=Pidd |date=23 July 2010 |title=Jon Venables jailed for two years over child pornography charges |newspaper=] |edition=online |location=London, UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jul/23/jon-venables-pleads-guilty |access-date=23 July 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108115203/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jul/23/jon-venables-pleads-guilty |archive-date=8 November 2014 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> The High Court also heard that Venables had been arrested on suspicion of affray in September 2008, following a drunken street fight with another man. Late that year, he was ] for ] of cocaine.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Batty |first1=David |last2=Pidd |first2=Helen |date=24 July 2010 |department=Jon Venables case |title=Inquiry ordered into parole supervision |newspaper=] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jul/24/james-bulger-jon-venables-inquiry |via=theguardian.com |url-status=live |access-date=2017-07-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827173741/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jul/24/james-bulger-jon-venables-inquiry |archive-date=27 August 2017 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> In November 2010, a review of the ] handling of the case by David Omand found that probation officers could not have prevented Venables from downloading child sexual abuse material. Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of the ], said that only 24 hour surveillance would have stopped Venables.<ref name=omand>{{cite web |series=Omand Review |title=The Case of Jon Venables |date=23 November 2010 |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/43766244/Venables-Omand-Review |via=Scribd.com |access-date=15 January 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105135827/http://www.scribd.com/doc/43766244/Venables-Omand-Review |archive-date=5 November 2012 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name=Jon_Venables_Probation>{{cite news |title=Report finds no probation lapse over Venables images |date=23 November 2010 |website=] |location=London, UK |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-11818188 |access-date=23 November 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124202235/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-11818188 |archive-date=24 November 2010 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Venables was eligible for parole in July 2011. On 27 June 2011, the parole board decided that he would remain in custody, and that his parole would not be considered again for at least another year.<ref name="Jon Venables denied parole">{{cite news |title=James Bulger killer Jon Venables denied parole |date=27 June 2011 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-13927361 |access-date=27 June 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629055017/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-13927361 |archive-date=29 June 2011 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
====New identity 2011==== | |||
On 4 May 2011, it was reported that Venables would once again be given a new identity, following what was described as a "serious security breach", which revealed an identity that he had been using before his imprisonment in 2010; details of the breach could not be reported for legal reasons.<ref name=new_identity>{{cite news |last=Brunt |first=Martin |date=4 May 2011 |title=Security breach sees child killer Venables get new ID |website=] |location=London, UK |url=https://news.sky.com/story/breach-sees-child-killer-venables-get-new-id-10488268 |url-status=live |access-date=4 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507231237/http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/James-Bulger-Killer-Jon-Venables-To-Be-Given-New-ID-After-Security-Breach-Revealed-Old-Identity/Article/201105115985161?lpos=UK_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15985161_James_Bulger_Killer_Jon_Venables_To_Be_Given_New_ID_After_Security_Breach_Revealed_Old_Identity |archive-date=7 May 2011}}</ref> A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice commented: "Such a change of identity is extremely rare, and granted only when the police assess that there is clear and credible evidence of a sustained threat to the offender's life on release into the community."<ref name="echo_identity">{{cite news |title=James Bulger's killer Jon Venables could get second new identity after pictures leaked on internet |date=4 May 2011 |newspaper=] |url=http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2011/05/04/james-bulger-s-killer-jon-venables-could-get-second-new-identity-after-pictures-leaked-on-internet-100252-28637186/ |access-date=4 May 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013054846/http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2011/05/04/james-bulger-s-killer-jon-venables-could-get-second-new-identity-after-pictures-leaked-on-internet-100252-28637186/ |archive-date=13 October 2012 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> The incident occurred after a man from ] posted photographs on a website devoted to identifying ], allegedly showing Venables as an adult, and revealing his name.<ref name=echo_exeter>{{cite news |title=City man defends decision to publish photos of Bulger killer |date=5 May 2011 |newspaper=] |url=http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/news/City-man-defends-decision-publish-photos-Bulger-killer/article-3522436-detail/article.html |via=thisisexeter.co.uk |url-status=dead |access-date=6 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110508223654/http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/news/City-man-defends-decision-publish-photos-Bulger-killer/article-3522436-detail/article.html |archive-date=8 May 2011 }}</ref> | |||
====2013 parole hearing and release==== | |||
In November 2011, it was reported that officials had decided that Venables would stay in prison for the foreseeable future, as he would be likely to reveal his true identity if released. A Ministry of Justice spokesman declined to comment on the reports.<ref name="pa">{{Cite news |title=Venables 'locked up indefinitely' |date=9 November 2011 |agency=] |url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hgBtaHLHgwvw-iPeQPdG0Ht2-D0w?docId=N0546841320832544731A |access-date=9 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240525141821/https://www.webcitation.org/634BEo5Ia?url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hgBtaHLHgwvw-iPeQPdG0Ht2-D0w%3FdocId=N0546841320832544731A |archive-date=25 May 2024}}</ref> On 4 July 2013, it was reported that the ] had approved the release again of Venables.<ref name=parole_2013>{{cite news |last=Osley |first=Richard |date=4 July 2013 |title=James Bulger killer Jon Venables to be freed |newspaper=] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/james-bulger-killer-jon-venables-to-be-freed-8688769.html |url-status=live |access-date=4 July 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130704175125/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/james-bulger-killer-jon-venables-to-be-freed-8688769.html |archive-date=4 July 2013}}</ref><ref name=parole_2013b>{{cite news |title=James Bulger killer Jon Venables to be freed |date=4 July 2013 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23190447 |access-date=4 July 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130704170613/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23190447 |archive-date=4 July 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> On 3 September 2013, it was reported that Venables had been released from prison.<ref name=2013_release>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23941699 |title=Bulger killer Jon Venables released from prison |date=3 September 2013 |work=] |access-date=3 September 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130903104723/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23941699 |archive-date=3 September 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
====2017 imprisonment==== | |||
On 23 November 2017, it was reported that Venables had again been recalled to prison for possession of more ] imagery. The Ministry of Justice declined to comment on the reports.<ref name="2017_prison">{{cite news |last=Thomas |first=Joe |date=23 November 2017 |title=Child killer Jon Venables 'back in jail' after latest arrest |newspaper=] |url=http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/child-killer-jon-venables-back-13941586 |url-status=live |access-date=23 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123125151/http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/child-killer-jon-venables-back-13941586 |archive-date=23 November 2017 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> On 5 January 2018, Venables was charged with unspecified offences relating to indecent images of children.<ref>{{cite news |title=James Bulger killer Jon Venables charged over indecent images |date=5 January 2018 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-42582561 |access-date=5 January 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105143841/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-42582561 |archive-date=5 January 2018 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> On 7 February 2018, Venables pleaded guilty to possession of indecent images of children for a second time. He pleaded guilty via video link to three charges of making indecent images of children, and one of possessing a "paedophile manual", that included advice for would-be child molesters, including instructions on ] and evading detection.<ref>{{cite news |title=Jon Venables jailed for owning 'paedophile manual' and a thousand indecent images of children |date=7 February 2018 |newspaper=] |url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/crime/jon-venables-jailed-owning-paedophile-manual-and-thousand-indecent-images-children-49965 |access-date=19 September 2021 |archive-date=13 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113000438/https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/crime/jon-venables-jailed-owning-paedophile-manual-and-thousand-indecent-images-children-49965 |url-status=live }}</ref> He admitted being in possession of 392 category {{sc|A}}, 148 category {{sc|B}}, and 630 category {{sc|C}} child sexual abuse images, and was sentenced to three years and four months in prison. In September 2020, he was denied parole.<ref>{{cite news |title=James Bulger killer Jon Venables denied parole over child abuse images |date=29 September 2020 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-54339662 |access-date=30 September 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004151011/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-54339662 |archive-date=4 October 2020}}</ref> On 13 December 2023, Venables was again denied parole, with the Parole Board saying that "The panel was not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public."<ref>{{cite news |date=13 December 2023 |title=James Bulger killer Jon Venables has parole bid rejected|work=Sky News |url=https://news.sky.com/story/james-bulger-killer-jon-venables-has-parole-bid-rejected-13017955|accessdate=13 December 2023}}</ref> | |||
====2019 legal challenge to lift anonymity refused==== | |||
On 4 March 2019, Bulger's father, Ralph, lost a legal challenge to lift the lifelong order protecting Venables' anonymity. Judge ] turned down the request, saying that the "uniquely notorious" nature of the case meant there is "a strong possibility, if not a probability, that if his identity were known, he would be pursued, resulting in grave and possibly fatal consequences."<ref>{{cite news |title=James Bulger's father loses Jon Venables identity challenge |date=4 March 2019 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-47400408 |access-date=4 March 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304143116/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-47400408 |archive-date=4 March 2019 }}</ref> | |||
====Potential overseas resettlement==== | |||
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. British authorities had reportedly spent £65,000 in legal fees to keep Venables' identity a secret.<ref>{{cite news |title=Child killer of 2 year-old James Bulger, Jon Venables, might be sent to New Zealand |date=24 June 2019 |newspaper=] |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12243206 |access-date=24 June 2019 |archive-date=24 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624023336/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12243206 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Wood |first=Richard |date=24 June 2019 |title=James Bulger murder: Infamous child killer could move to Australia |website=] |url=https://www.9news.com.au/world/james-bulger-murder-why-uk-infamous-child-killer-jon-venables-could-move-to-australia/1a7fb426-5bfe-4f38-8eeb-87360c3f8d94 |url-status=live |access-date=24 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624073546/https://www.9news.com.au/world/james-bulger-murder-why-uk-infamous-child-killer-jon-venables-could-move-to-australia/1a7fb426-5bfe-4f38-8eeb-87360c3f8d94 |archive-date=24 June 2019 }}</ref> In response to media coverage, Prime Minister ] remarked that, due to his criminal history, Venables would need an exemption under New Zealand's ], and that he should "not bother" applying.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cheng |first1=Derek |title=Jacinda Ardern on UK child-killer Jon Venables' possible relocation to NZ - 'Don't bother applying' |date=24 June 2019 |newspaper=] |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12243475 |access-date=24 June 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624145507/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12243475 |archive-date=24 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title='Don't bother applying' – PM's message to Jon Venables, killer of two-year-old James Bulger |date=24 June 2019 |publisher=] |url=https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/don-t-bother-applying-pms-message-jon-venables-killer-two-year-old-james-bulger |url-status=live |access-date=24 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624073548/https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/don-t-bother-applying-pms-message-jon-venables-killer-two-year-old-james-bulger |archive-date=24 June 2019 }}</ref> | |||
==In popular culture== | |||
=== Fringe 2001 stage play ''The Age of Consent'' === | |||
In August 2001, a stage play titled ''The Age of Consent'' by ] was performed at the ]. The play featured an 18-year-old character called Timmy, who was due to be released from a secure unit after luring a toddler away from his mother and beating him to death. | |||
The play generated controversy due to the similarities between the character and James' killers.<ref>{{cite news |title=Festival defends 'Bulger' play |date=6 August 2001 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1475836.stm |access-date=2 April 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519193917/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1475836.stm |archive-date=19 May 2022 }}</ref> Although she had not seen the play, Denise Fergus denounced it as a work that was "just designed to try and shock people and grab publicity" and that "anyone who would stoop so low as to use my son's death as a subject for comedy is sick and pathetic."<ref>{{cite news |last=Gibbons |first=Fiachra |date=6 August 2001 |title=Family attacks use of Bulger case in 'funny' Fringe play |newspaper=] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/aug/06/edinburghfestival2001.edinburgh |url-status=live |access-date=2 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210822100445/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/aug/06/edinburghfestival2001.edinburgh |archive-date=22 August 2021}}</ref> | |||
In response to the controversy, Morris stated that the humour in his play was "never at the expense of the various people, Mrs Fergus included, who have suffered so much in the aftermath of James's murder". He commented that the work "is emphatically not a comedy" but instead "intended as a serious moral examination of what contemporary society is doing to children".<ref name=Morris>{{cite news |first=Peter |last=Morris |date=8 August 2001 |title=In defence of my play |location=London, UK |newspaper=] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,,533615,00.html |access-date=2 April 2021 |archive-date=10 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410152214/https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,,533615,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
=== Computer game === | |||
In June 2007, a computer game based on the television series '']'', titled '']'' (made in 2003), was withdrawn from stores in the UK following reports that it contained an image of Bulger. The image in question is the ] by Thompson and Venables. The scene in the game involves a computer-generated detective pointing out the picture, which is meant to represent a fictional child abduction that the player is then asked to investigate. Bulger's family, along with many others, complained, and the game was subsequently withdrawn by its UK distributor, GSP. | |||
The game's developer, ], released a statement in which it apologised for the image's inclusion in the game; according to the statement, the image's use was "inadvertent", and took place "without any knowledge of the crime, which occurred in the UK, and was minimally publicised in the United States".<ref name="legacy_apologise">{{cite web |date=21 June 2007 |title=Legacy Apologises For Law And Order Crime Photo |url=http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14423 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429180539/http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14423 |archive-date=29 April 2008 |access-date=13 April 2008 |publisher=gamasutra.com |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
=== 2008 'true crime'-style stage play === | |||
In 2008, Swedish playwright ] used the interview transcripts from interrogations with the murderers and their families to recreate the story. His play, ''Monsters'', opened to mixed reviews at the ] in ] in May 2009.<ref name=monsters>{{cite news |first=Michael |last=Billington |date=9 May 2009 |title=''Monsters'' |type=theatre review |newspaper=] |location=London, UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/may/09/monsters-michael-billington-theatre-review |access-date=11 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140809040527/http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/may/09/monsters-michael-billington-theatre-review |archive-date=9 August 2014 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=McAlpine |first=Emma |date=15 May 2009 |title=''Monsters'' at the Arcola Theatre |website=Spoonfed London |url=http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/emma-422/monsters-at-the-arcola-theatre-1135 |access-date=2023-04-15 |df=dmy-all |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090523095110/http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/emma-422/monsters-at-the-arcola-theatre-1135 |archive-date=2009-05-23}}</ref> | |||
===Australian television publicity stunt=== | |||
In August 2009, Australia's ] used real footage of James Bulger's abduction to promote its crime drama '']''. The use of the footage was criticised by Bulger's mother, and Seven apologised.<ref name="Seven 'sorry' for Bulger ad">{{cite web |date=30 August 2009 |title=Seven 'sorry' for Bulger ad |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/seven-sorry-for-bulger-ad-20090830-f3l4.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129164806/https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/seven-sorry-for-bulger-ad-20090830-f3l4.html |archive-date=29 January 2024 |access-date=29 January 2024 |website=] |publisher=] |location=Australia}}</ref> | |||
On 24 August, co-hosts on Seven's breakfast show ] asked whether the killers were now living in Australia, in an apparent tie-in with that week's episode of ''City Homicide''. They answered the question the next day by relaying the Australian government's denial that the killers had been settled in the country.<ref name="Rumour-Fuelled Ratings Chase">{{cite web |title=Rumour-fuelled ratings chase |date=31 August 2009 |website=] (abc.net.au) |url=https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/rumour-fuelled-ratings-chase/9974808 |access-date=1 September 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090904153206/http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2672289.htm |archive-date=4 September 2009 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
=== Soap opera storyline === | |||
A storyline in the British soap opera '']'' was set to begin in December 2009, but cancelled after the series makers gave Bulger's mother Denise Fergus a private screening. | |||
The storyline was to feature ] and her friend Chrissy, who had been given new identities before arriving in the village, after being convicted of murdering a child at the age of 12.<ref>{{cite news |title=Hollyoaks producers drop scenes echoing the killing of James Bulger |date=15 November 2009 |newspaper=] |place=London, UK |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/6812785/Hollyoaks-producers-drop-scenes-echoing-the-killing-of-James-Bulger.html |access-date=8 November 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108111852/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/6812785/Hollyoaks-producers-drop-scenes-echoing-the-killing-of-James-Bulger.html |archive-date=8 November 2014 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
=== Scholarly reference === | |||
In 2010 the critical theorist ] introduced his book ''On Evil'' with the story of Bulger's murder.<ref>{{cite news |last=Coles |first=Richard |date=30 May 2010 |title=''On Evil'' by Terry Eagleton |type=book review |newspaper=] |location=London, UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/30/terry-eagleton-evil-book-review |access-date=8 January 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108160232/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/30/terry-eagleton-evil-book-review |archive-date=8 January 2014 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
=== ''Playground'' (2016 film) === | |||
''Plac Zabaw'' (also known as ''Playground'') is a 2016 Polish drama thriller directed by Bartosz M. Kowalski. The story includes Thompson and Venables, but presented as "Szymek" and "Czarek". The case is used at the end of the film, as both boys abduct a little boy from a mall, taking him to a railroad, abusing and murdering him. | |||
=== 2019 Oscars controversy === | |||
In January 2019, the short film '']'' was nominated for ] at the ] ("The Oscars"). The film is based on transcripts of the police interviews with Thompson and Venables after their arrests.<ref>{{cite news |title=''Detainment'' makes Oscars short list |date=21 December 2018 |newspaper=Winchester Today |url=http://www.winchestertoday.co.uk/2018/12/detainment-makes-oscars-shortlist/ |access-date=7 January 2019 |archive-date=7 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107233028/http://www.winchestertoday.co.uk/2018/12/detainment-makes-oscars-shortlist/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=James Bulger's mother 'disgusted' over nomination |date=22 January 2019 |website=] |department=Oscars 2019 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46964691 |access-date=22 January 2019 |archive-date=22 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190122164215/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46964691 |url-status=live }}</ref> Bulger's mother was not consulted before the film's release. She criticised its nomination and circulated a petition to have the film removed from the nominations.<ref>{{cite news |title=Bulger mother calls on director to drop out of awards |date=24 January 2019 |website=] |department=Oscars 2019 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46984472 |access-date=24 January 2019 |archive-date=24 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190124134001/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46984472 |url-status=live }}</ref> In response, the film's director ] refused to withdraw the film from consideration, saying that "it would defeat the purpose of making the film".<ref>{{cite news |title=Bulger film director 'won't withdraw' from Oscars race |date=24 January 2019 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46995039 |access-date=24 January 2019 |archive-date=24 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190124204613/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46995039 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
==See also== | |||
*] | |||
*] | *] | ||
*] | |||
*] | |||
==References== | |||
{{reflist|colwidth=25em}} | |||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
{{refbegin|colwidth=25em|small=yes}} | |||
* – a site set up by Denise Bulger to demand lengthier prison sentences for her son's killers. | |||
* {{cite web |title=The murder of James Bulger |department=Notorious murders / Young |series=Crime Library |website=] (trutv.com) |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/1.html |url-status=dead <!-- presumed --> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090121191737/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/bulger/1.html |archive-date=2009-01-21 |df=dmy-all}} | |||
* | |||
* {{cite news |title=How Edlington case follows course paved by Bulger trial |date=22 January 2010 |website=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8300034.stm |url-status=dead <!-- presumed --> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111216130509/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8300034.stm |archive-date=2011-12-16 |df=dmy-all}} | |||
* | |||
* {{cite news |title=Recollections from key people involved in the Bulger trial, ten years on |date=6 February 2003 |newspaper=] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/feb/06/bulger.ukcrime1 }} | |||
**including | |||
* {{cite news |title='James would be 18 now – the pain of losing him will never go away' |date=2 March 2008 |newspaper=] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/mar/02/ukcrime.prisonsandprobation1 }} | |||
* | |||
* {{cite news |title=Michael Jackson's 'Heal the World' released to support new Liverpool James Bulger centre for bullied children |date=8 October 2009 |newspaper=] |url=http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/10/08/michael-jackson-s-heal-the-world-released-to-support-new-liverpool-james-bulger-centre-for-bullied-children-92534-24879959/ |url-status=dead <!-- presumed --> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091016040814/http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/10/08/michael-jackson-s-heal-the-world-released-to-support-new-liverpool-james-bulger-centre-for-bullied-children-92534-24879959/ |archive-date=2009-10-16 |df=dmy-all}} | |||
* {{cite news |title=James Bulger's father on surviving 20 years of grief |date=12 February 2013 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21337506 }} | |||
* {{cite news |last=Williams |first=Zoe |date=5 July 2013 |title=Jon Venables: 'How attitudes towards criminality have changed and hardened' |newspaper=] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/05/jon-venables-criminality-attitudes-james-bulger }} | |||
* {{cite news |last=Freeman-Powell |first=Shamaan |date=18 April 2019 |title=Legal dilemma of granting child killers anonymity |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47721177}} | |||
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Latest revision as of 08:16, 21 December 2024
1993 child murder in Liverpool, England
Murder of James Bulger | |
---|---|
Bulger being abducted by Thompson (in front of Bulger) and Venables (holding Bulger's hand) in an image captured on shopping centre CCTV | |
Location | Walton, Liverpool, England |
Date | 12 February 1993; 31 years ago (1993-02-12) |
Attack type | Child-on-child murder by bludgeoning, torture murder, kidnapping, mutilation, dismemberment |
Weapons | Bricks, stones, a fishplate, others |
Victim | James Patrick Bulger, aged 2 |
Burial | Kirkdale Cemetery, Fazakerley, Liverpool |
Perpetrators |
|
Motive | Inconclusive |
Verdict | Guilty |
Convictions | Murder, abduction |
Sentence | Indefinite sentence in juvenile detention (paroled after 8 years) |
On 12 February 1993 in Merseyside, two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, abducted, tortured, and murdered a two-year-old boy, James Patrick Bulger (16 March 1990 – 12 February 1993). Thompson and Venables led Bulger away from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, after his mother had taken her eyes off him momentarily. His mutilated body was found on a railway line two and a half miles (four kilometres) away in Walton, Liverpool, two days later.
Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with abduction and murder. They were found guilty on 24 November, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern British history. They were sentenced to indefinite detention at Her Majesty's pleasure, and remained in custody until a Parole Board decision in June 2001 recommended their release on a lifelong licence at age 18. Venables was sent to prison in 2010 for breaching the terms of his licence, was released on parole again in 2013, and in November 2017 was again sent to prison for possessing child sexual abuse images on his computer. He remained in prison in 2023 after his appeals for parole were rejected.
The Bulger case has prompted widespread debate about how to handle young offenders when they are sentenced or released from custody.
Timeline
Prior to the kidnapping
Closed-circuit television (CCTV) at the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle on 12 February 1993 showed Thompson and Venables casually observing children, apparently selecting a target. The boys were playing truant from their local primary school, which they did regularly. 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. One of the boys later said that before abducting Bulger, they were planning to abduct a child, lead him to the busy road alongside the shopping centre, and push him into the oncoming traffic.
Abduction
That same afternoon, two-year-old James Patrick Bulger, from Kirkby, went with his mother, Denise, to the New Strand Shopping Centre. While inside the A.R. Tym's butcher's shop on the lower floor of the centre at around 15:40, Denise, who had let go of her son's hand to pay for her shopping, realised that her son was missing. Thompson and Venables had approached Bulger, taken him by the hand, and led him out of the shopping centre. The moment was caught on CCTV at 15:42.
Torture and murder
Thompson and Venables took Bulger to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, around 1⁄4 mile (400 metres) from the New Strand Shopping Centre, where they dropped him on his head, and he suffered injuries to his face. The boys joked about pushing Bulger into the canal. An eyewitness said that when he saw Bulger at the canal, the boy was "crying his eyes out". The boys went on a 2+1⁄2-mile (4-kilometre) walk across Liverpool; they were seen by around 38 people, but most bystanders did nothing to intervene. Two people confronted Thompson and Venables, but they either claimed that Bulger was their brother, or that he was lost, and that they were taking him to a police station. At one point, the boys took Bulger into a pet shop, from which they were ejected.
Eventually, the boys arrived in Walton. With Walton Lane Police Station across the road, they hesitated, then led Bulger up a steep bank to a railway line near the former Walton & Anfield railway station, close to Walton Park Cemetery. One of the boys threw the blue paint that they had shoplifted earlier into Bulger's left eye. They kicked him, stamped on him, and threw bricks and stones at him. They placed batteries in Bulger's mouth and may have inserted some into his anus, although none were found there. Finally, the boys dropped a 10 kg (22 lb) railway fishplate on Bulger. He sustained 10 skull fractures as a result of the bar striking his head. Pathologist Alan Williams stated that Bulger suffered so many injuries—42 in total—that none could be identified as the fatal blow.
Thompson and Venables laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, hoping that a train would hit him and his death would be ruled an accident. After they left the scene, his body was cut in half by a train. Bulger's severed body was discovered by four boys looking for footballs two days later. A forensic pathologist testified that Bulger died before he was struck by the train.
Investigation
Police suspected that the boys had sexually assaulted Bulger, as his shoes, socks, trousers, and underpants had been removed. The pathologist's report, which was read out in court, found that Bulger's foreskin had been forcibly pulled back. 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. When Venables was let out on parole, his psychiatrist, Susan Bailey, reported that "visiting and revisiting the issue with Jon as a child, and now as an adolescent, he gives no account of any sexual element to the offence."
The police quickly found low-resolution video images of two unidentified boys abducting Bulger from the New Strand Shopping Centre. The railway embankment upon which his body had been discovered was soon adorned with hundreds of bunches of flowers. The family of one boy, who was detained for questioning but subsequently released, had to flee the city due to threats from vigilantes. The breakthrough came when a woman, upon seeing slightly enhanced images of the two boys on national television, recognised Venables, and remembered seeing him playing truant with Thompson in the Bootle area that day. She contacted the police, and the boys were arrested.
Legal proceedings
Arrest
The fact that the suspects were so young came as a shock to investigating officers, headed by Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby of Merseyside Police. 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. Forensic tests confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as found on Bulger's body. Both had blood on their shoes; the blood on Thompson's shoe was matched to Bulger's through DNA tests. A pattern of bruising on Bulger's right cheek matched the features of the upper part of a shoe worn by Thompson; a paint mark in the toecap of one of Venables's shoes indicated he must have used "some force" when he kicked Bulger. Thompson is said to have asked police whether Bulger had been taken to hospital to "get him alive again."
The boys were each charged with the murder of James Bulger on 20 February 1993, and appeared at South Sefton Youth Court on 22 February 1993, where they were remanded in custody to await trial. In the aftermath of their arrest, and throughout the media accounts of their trial, the boys were referred to as "Child A" (Thompson) and "Child B" (Venables). Awaiting trial, they were held in the secure units where they would eventually be sentenced to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure.
Trial
Up to 500 protesters gathered at the Magistrates' Court in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton during the boys' initial court appearances. The parents of the accused were moved to different parts of the country and assumed new identities following death threats from vigilantes. The full trial opened at Sessions House, Preston, on 1 November 1993, conducted as an adult trial with the accused in the dock away from their parents, and the judge and court officials in legal regalia. The boys denied the charges of murder, abduction and attempted abduction. The attempted abduction charge related to an incident at the New Strand Shopping Centre earlier on 12 February 1993, the day of Bulger's death. Thompson and Venables had attempted to lead away another two-year-old boy, but had been prevented by the boy's mother.
Each boy sat in view of the court on raised chairs so they could see out of the dock designed for adults, and were accompanied by two social workers and guards. Although they were separated from their parents, they were within touching distance when their families attended the trial. News stories reported the demeanour of the defendants. These aspects were later criticised by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in 1999 that they had not received a fair trial by being tried in public in an adult court. At the trial, the lead prosecution counsel Richard Henriques successfully rebutted the principle of doli incapax, which presumes that young children cannot be held legally responsible for their actions.
Thompson and Venables were considered by the court to be capable of "mischievous discretion", meaning an ability to act with criminal intent as they were mature enough to understand that they were doing something seriously wrong. A child psychiatrist, Eileen Vizard, who interviewed Thompson before the trial, was asked in court whether he would know the difference between right and wrong, that it was wrong to take a young child away from his mother, and that it was wrong to cause injury to a child. Vizard replied, "If the issue is on the balance of probabilities, I think I can answer with certainty." Vizard also said that Thompson was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after the attack on Bulger. Susan Bailey, the Home Office's forensic psychiatrist who interviewed Venables, said unequivocally that he knew the difference between right and wrong.
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. Thompson was considered to have taken the leading role in the abduction process, though it was Venables who had apparently initiated the idea of taking Bulger to the railway line. Venables later described how Bulger seemed to like him, holding his hand and allowing him to pick him up on the meandering journey to the scene of his murder. 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. After his appearances in court, Venables would strip off his clothes, saying: "I can smell James like a baby smell." 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 pathologist spent 33 minutes outlining the injuries sustained by Bulger; many of those to his legs had been inflicted after he was stripped from the waist down. Brain damage was extensive and included a haemorrhage.
The boys, by then aged 11, were found guilty of Bulger's murder at the Preston court on 24 November 1993, becoming the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century. The judge, Mr Justice Morland, told Thompson and Venables that they had committed a crime of "unparalleled evil and barbarity ... In my judgment, your conduct was both cunning and very wicked." Morland sentenced them to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, with a recommendation that they should be kept in custody for "very, very many years to come", recommending a minimum term of eight years. At the close of the trial, the judge lifted reporting restrictions and allowed the names of the killers to be released, saying: "I did this because the public interest overrode the interest of the defendants ... There was a need for an informed public debate on crimes committed by young children." David Omand later criticised this decision and outlined the difficulties created by it in his 2010 review of the probation service's handling of the case.
Post-trial
Shortly after the trial, and after the judge had recommended a minimum sentence of eight years, Lord Taylor of Gosforth, the Lord Chief Justice, recommended that the two boys should serve a minimum of ten years, which would have made them eligible for release in February 2003 at the age of 20. 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. This campaign was successful, and Howard announced in July 1994 that the boys would be kept in custody for a minimum of fifteen years, meaning that they would not be considered for release until February 2008, by which time they would be 25 years old.
Lord Donaldson criticised Howard's intervention, describing the increased tariff as "institutionalised vengeance ... a politician playing to the gallery". 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. The High Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights have since ruled that although the parliament may set minimum and maximum terms for individual categories of crime, it is the responsibility of the trial judge, with the benefit of all the evidence and argument from both prosecution and defence counsel, to determine the minimum term in individual criminal cases.
Tony Blair, then Shadow Home Secretary, gave a speech in Wellingborough during which he said: "We hear of crimes so horrific they provoke anger and disbelief in equal proportions ... These are the ugly manifestations of a society that is becoming unworthy of that name." Prime Minister John Major said that "society needs to condemn a little more, and understand a little less." The trial judge Mr Justice Morland stated that exposure to violent videos might have encouraged the actions of Thompson and Venables; this was disputed by David Maclean, the Minister of State at the Home Office at the time, who said that police had found no evidence linking the case with "video nasties".
Some British tabloid newspapers claimed that the attack on Bulger was inspired by the film Child's Play 3, and campaigned for the rules on "video nasties" to be tightened. During the police investigation, it emerged that Child's Play 3 was one of the films that Venables' father had rented in the months prior to the killing, but it was not established that Venables had ever watched it. One scene in the film shows the malevolent doll Chucky being splashed with blue paint during a paintball game. A Merseyside detective said, "We went through something like 200 titles rented by the Venables family. There were some you or I wouldn't want to see, but nothing—no scene, or plot, or dialogue—where you could put your finger on the freeze button and say that influenced a boy to go out and commit murder." Inspector Ray Simpson of Merseyside Police commented: "If you are going to link this murder to a film, you might as well link it to The Railway Children." The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 clarified the rules on the availability of certain types of video material to children.
Detention
Following the trial, Thompson was detained at Barton Moss Secure Children's Home, which was then known as Barton Moss Secure Care Centre, in Salford.
Venables was detained in Vardy House, a small eight-bedded unit at Red Bank Secure Unit in St. Helens on Merseyside. These locations were not publicly known until after the boys' release. Details of the boys' lives were recorded twice daily on running sheets and signed by the member of staff who had written them; the records were stored at the units and copied to officials in Whitehall. The boys were taught to conceal their real names and the crime they had committed which resulted in their being in the units. Venables' parents regularly visited their son at Red Bank, just as Thompson's mother did, every three days, at Barton Moss. 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. Both boys were reported to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, and Venables in particular told of experiencing nightmares and flashbacks of the murder.
Appeal and release
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. The court dismissed their claim that the trial was inhuman and degrading treatment but upheld their claim they were denied a fair trial by the nature of the court proceedings. The court also held that the Home Secretary's intervention had led to a "highly charged atmosphere", which resulted in an unfair judgment. On 15 March 1999, the court in Strasbourg ruled by 14 votes to five that there had been a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights; regarding the fairness of the trial of Thompson and Venables, they stated: "The public trial process in an adult court must be regarded in the case of an 11 year-old child as a severely intimidating procedure."
In September 1999, Bulger's parents appealed to the European Court of Human Rights but failed to persuade the court that a victim of a crime has the right to be involved in determining the sentence of the perpetrator. The European Court case led to the new Lord Chief Justice, Harry Woolf, reviewing the minimum sentence. In October 2000, he recommended the tariff be reduced from ten to eight years, adding that Her Majesty's Young Offender Institution was a "corrosive atmosphere" for the juveniles.
In June 2001, after a six-month review, the parole board ruled the boys were no longer a threat to public safety and could be released, as their minimum tariff had expired in February of that year. Home Secretary David Blunkett approved the decision, and they were released a few weeks later on lifelong licence after serving eight years. It was reported that both boys "were given new identities and moved to secret locations under a 'witness protection'-like programme." This was supported by the fabrication of passports, national insurance numbers, qualification certificates, and medical records. Blunkett added his own conditions to their licence and insisted on being sent daily updates on the boys' actions.
The terms of their release included the following: They were not allowed to contact each other or Bulger's family; they were prohibited from visiting the Merseyside region; curfews may be imposed on them, and they must report to probation officers. If they breached the rules or were deemed a risk to the public, they could be returned to prison.
A court injunction was imposed on the media after the trial, preventing the publication of details about Thompson and Venables. The worldwide injunction was kept in force following their release on parole, so their new identities and locations could not be published. In 2001, Blunkett stated: "The injunction was granted because there was a real and strong possibility that their lives would be at risk if their identities became known."
Later developments
Dissolution of James Bulger's family
In the months after the trial, and following the birth of their second son, the marriage of Bulger's parents, Ralph and Denise, broke down; they divorced in 1995.
Denise Bulger later married Stuart Fergus, with whom she had two sons. Ralph Bulger also remarried, and had three daughters with his second wife.
Bulger memorial and legal activism
On 14 March 2008, an appeal to set up a Red Balloon Learner Centre in Merseyside in memory of James Bulger was launched by his mother and Esther Rantzen. A memorial garden in Bulger's memory was created in Sacred Heart Primary School in his hometown of Kirkby, the school he would have been expected to attend had he not been murdered.
In March 2010, a call was made by England's Children's commissioner Maggie Atkinson to raise the age of criminal responsibility from ten to twelve. She said that the killers of James Bulger should have undergone "programmes" to help turn their lives around, rather than being prosecuted. The Ministry of Justice rejected the call, saying that children over the age of ten knew the difference "between bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing".
Court protective injunction and violations
During Venables' and Thompson's incarcerations, the court order protecting their identities was renewed, but details about them, both real and fabricated, gradually leaked into the press and via the internet.
Early reports about prison life
The Observer revealed that both Venables and Thompson had passed their GCSEs and A-Levels during their sentences. The paper also stated that the Bulger family's lawyers had consulted psychiatric experts in order to present the parole panel with a report that suggested Thompson is an undiagnosed psychopath, citing his lack of remorse during his trial and arrest. That report was ultimately dismissed; however, Thompson's lack of remorse at the time, in stark contrast to Venables, led to considerable scrutiny from the parole panel. Upon release, both Thompson and Venables had lost all trace of their Scouse accent.
In a psychiatric report prepared in 2000 before Venables' release, he was described as posing a "trivial" risk to the public and unlikely to reoffend. The chances of his successful rehabilitation were described as "very high".
The Manchester Evening News published details that suggested the names of the secure institutions in which the pair were housed, in breach of the injunction against publicity that had been renewed early in 2001. In December that year, the paper was fined £30,000 for contempt of court and ordered to pay costs of £120,000. No significant publication or vigilante action against Thompson or Venables has occurred. Despite this, Bulger's mother, Denise, told how in 2004 she received a tip-off from an anonymous source that helped her locate Thompson. Upon seeing him, she was "paralysed with hatred", and was unable to confront him.
In April 2007, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 confirmed that the Home Office had spent £13,000 on an injunction to prevent a foreign magazine from revealing the new identities of Thompson and Venables.
False identification and internet trolling
In April 2010, a 19-year-old man from the Isle of Man was given a three-month suspended prison sentence for falsely claiming in a Facebook message that one of his former colleagues was Thompson. In passing sentence, Deputy High Bailiff Alastair Montgomerie said that the teenager had "put that person at significant risk of serious harm" and in a "perilous position" by making the allegation.
In March 2012, a 26-year-old man from Chorley, Lancashire, was arrested after allegedly setting up a Facebook group with the title "What happened to Jamie Bulger was fucking hilarious". The man's computer was seized for further investigations.
Internet photo posts
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. A spokesman commented:
- "There are many different images circulating online claiming to be of Venables or Thompson; potentially innocent individuals may be wrongly identified as being one of the two men and placed in danger. The order, and its enforcement, is therefore intended to protect not only Venables and Thompson, but also those members of the public who have been incorrectly identified as being one of the two men."
On 26 April 2013, two men received suspended jail sentences of nine months after admitting to contempt of court, by publishing photographs that they claimed to be of Venables and Thompson on Facebook and Twitter. The posts were seen by 24,000 people. According to BBC legal correspondent Clive Coleman, the purpose of the prosecution was to ensure that the public was aware that Internet users were also subject to the law of contempt.
On 27 November 2013, a man from Liverpool received a 14-month suspended prison sentence for posting images on Twitter claiming to show Venables.
On 31 January 2019, a man and a woman pleaded guilty to eight contempt-of-court offences at the High Court after they admitted to posting photos on social media that they claimed identified Venables; both received suspended prison sentences. In March 2019, actress Tina Malone was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence for posting Venables' alleged identity on Facebook.
In January 2020, a 53-year-old woman from Ammanford in South Wales received a prison sentence of eight months, suspended for 15 months: in November 2017, she had published an alleged photograph of Venables on Facebook, with the advice "share this as much as possible". Lord Justice Nigel Davis said that the offence was "close to the line" for an immediate prison sentence, but suspended the sentence after observing an early admission of guilt and remorse by the woman.
Trolling and stalking of James' mother
On 14 July 2016, a woman from Margate in Kent was jailed for three years after sending Twitter messages to Bulger's mother, in which she posed as one of his killers, and as Bulger's ghost. The sentence was reduced to 2+1⁄2 years on appeal.
On 25 October 2016, a man was jailed for 26 weeks for stalking Denise Fergus; he had previously received a police warning for stalking her in 2008.
Later life of Jon Venables
Relationships
Shortly before his 2001 release, when aged 17, Venables was alleged to have had sex with a woman who worked at the Red Bank secure unit where he was held. In April 2011, in the aftermath of his 2010 imprisonment, these allegations were outlined in a Sunday Times Magazine article written by David James Smith, who had been following the Bulger case since the 1993 trial, and again later in a BBC documentary titled Jon Venables: What went wrong? The female staff member was suspended for sexual misconduct; she never returned to work at Red Bank. A spokesman for St Helens Council denied that the incident had been covered up, saying, "All allegations were thoroughly investigated by an independent team on the orders of the Home Office and chaired by Arthur de Frischling, a retired prison governor."
Misdemeanours while on release 2002–2008
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.
After a period of apparently reduced supervision, Venables began excessively drinking, taking drugs, and downloading child abuse images, as well as visiting Merseyside, which was a breach of his licence. In September 2002, 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. Three months later, he was found to be in possession of cocaine; he was subjected to a curfew.
In 2005, when Venables was age 23, his probation officer met another girlfriend of his, who was aged 17. After a number of "young girlfriends", it was presumed that Venables was having a delayed adolescence. In 2008, a new probation officer said that Venables spent "a great deal of leisure time" playing video games and on the Internet.
On two occasions, Jon Venables revealed his true identity to a friend.
2010 imprisonment
Venables contacted his probation officer in February 2010, reporting that he feared that his new identity had been compromised at his place of work. When the officer arrived at his flat, Venables was attempting to remove or destroy the hard drive of his computer with a knife and a tin opener. The officer's suspicions were aroused, and the computer was taken away for examination leading to the discovery of the child sexual abuse material, which included children as young as two being raped by adults, and penetrative rape of seven- or eight-year-olds.
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. Justice Secretary Jack Straw stated that Venables had been returned to prison because of "extremely serious allegations", and stated that he was "unable to give further details of the reasons for Jon Venables' return to custody, because it was not in the public interest to do so". On 7 March, media reports said that he had been accused of offences related to possession of child sexual abuse material.
In a statement to the House of Commons on 8 March 2010, Straw reiterated that it was "not in the interest of justice" to reveal the reason why Venables had been returned to custody. Baroness Butler-Sloss, the judge who made the decision to grant Venables anonymity in 2001, warned that Venables could be killed if his identity was revealed.
Bulger's mother, Denise Fergus, said she was angry that the parole board did not tell her that Venables had been returned to prison, and called for his anonymity to be removed if he was charged with a crime. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice stated that there was a worldwide injunction against publication of either killer's location or new identity. Venables' return to prison revived a false claim that a man from Fleetwood, Lancashire, was Venables. While the claim was reported and dismissed in September 2005, it reappeared in March 2010 when it was circulated widely via SMS messages and Facebook. 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."
On 21 June 2010, Venables was charged with possession and distribution of indecent images of children. It was alleged that he had downloaded 57 indecent images of children over a 12-month period to February 2010, and had allowed other people to access the files through a peer-to-peer network. Venables faced two charges under the Protection of Children Act 1978. On 23 July, Venables appeared at a court hearing at the Old Bailey via a video link, visible only to the judge hearing the case. He pleaded guilty to charges of downloading and distributing child sexual abuse material, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. At the court hearing, it emerged that Venables had posed in online chat rooms as 35-year-old Dawn "Dawnie" Smith, a supposedly married woman from Liverpool, who boasted about abusing her 8-year-old daughter, in the hope of obtaining further child sexual abuse material.
The judge, Mr. Justice David Bean, ruled that Venables' new identity could not be revealed, but the media were allowed to report that he had been living in Cheshire at the time of his arrest. The High Court also heard that Venables had been arrested on suspicion of affray in September 2008, following a drunken street fight with another man. Late that year, he was cautioned for possession of cocaine. In November 2010, a review of the National Probation Service handling of the case by David Omand found that probation officers could not have prevented Venables from downloading child sexual abuse material. Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said that only 24 hour surveillance would have stopped Venables. Venables was eligible for parole in July 2011. On 27 June 2011, the parole board decided that he would remain in custody, and that his parole would not be considered again for at least another year.
New identity 2011
On 4 May 2011, it was reported that Venables would once again be given a new identity, following what was described as a "serious security breach", which revealed an identity that he had been using before his imprisonment in 2010; details of the breach could not be reported for legal reasons. A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice commented: "Such a change of identity is extremely rare, and granted only when the police assess that there is clear and credible evidence of a sustained threat to the offender's life on release into the community." 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.
2013 parole hearing and release
In November 2011, it was reported that officials had decided that Venables would stay in prison for the foreseeable future, as he would be likely to reveal his true identity if released. A Ministry of Justice spokesman declined to comment on the reports. On 4 July 2013, it was reported that the Parole Board for England and Wales had approved the release again of Venables. On 3 September 2013, it was reported that Venables had been released from prison.
2017 imprisonment
On 23 November 2017, it was reported that Venables had again been recalled to prison for possession of more child sexual abuse imagery. The Ministry of Justice declined to comment on the reports. On 5 January 2018, Venables was charged with unspecified offences relating to indecent images of children. On 7 February 2018, Venables pleaded guilty to possession of indecent images of children for a second time. He pleaded guilty via video link to three charges of making indecent images of children, and one of possessing a "paedophile manual", that included advice for would-be child molesters, including instructions on child grooming and evading detection. He admitted being in possession of 392 category A, 148 category B, and 630 category C child sexual abuse images, and was sentenced to three years and four months in prison. In September 2020, he was denied parole. On 13 December 2023, Venables was again denied parole, with the Parole Board saying that "The panel was not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public."
2019 legal challenge to lift anonymity refused
On 4 March 2019, Bulger's father, Ralph, lost a legal challenge to lift the lifelong order protecting Venables' anonymity. Judge Andrew McFarlane turned down the request, saying that the "uniquely notorious" nature of the case meant there is "a strong possibility, if not a probability, that if his identity were known, he would be pursued, resulting in grave and possibly fatal consequences."
Potential overseas resettlement
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. British authorities had reportedly spent £65,000 in legal fees to keep Venables' identity a secret. In response to media coverage, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern remarked that, due to his criminal history, Venables would need an exemption under New Zealand's Immigration Act 2009, and that he should "not bother" applying.
In popular culture
Fringe 2001 stage play The Age of Consent
In August 2001, a stage play titled The Age of Consent by Peter Morris was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The play featured an 18-year-old character called Timmy, who was due to be released from a secure unit after luring a toddler away from his mother and beating him to death.
The play generated controversy due to the similarities between the character and James' killers. Although she had not seen the play, Denise Fergus denounced it as a work that was "just designed to try and shock people and grab publicity" and that "anyone who would stoop so low as to use my son's death as a subject for comedy is sick and pathetic."
In response to the controversy, Morris stated that the humour in his play was "never at the expense of the various people, Mrs Fergus included, who have suffered so much in the aftermath of James's murder". He commented that the work "is emphatically not a comedy" but instead "intended as a serious moral examination of what contemporary society is doing to children".
Computer game
In June 2007, a computer game based on the television series Law & Order, titled Law & Order: Double or Nothing (made in 2003), was withdrawn from stores in the UK following reports that it contained an image of Bulger. The image in question is the CCTV frame of Bulger being led away by Thompson and Venables. The scene in the game involves a computer-generated detective pointing out the picture, which is meant to represent a fictional child abduction that the player is then asked to investigate. Bulger's family, along with many others, complained, and the game was subsequently withdrawn by its UK distributor, GSP.
The game's developer, Legacy Interactive, released a statement in which it apologised for the image's inclusion in the game; according to the statement, the image's use was "inadvertent", and took place "without any knowledge of the crime, which occurred in the UK, and was minimally publicised in the United States".
2008 'true crime'-style stage play
In 2008, Swedish playwright Niklas Rådström used the interview transcripts from interrogations with the murderers and their families to recreate the story. His play, Monsters, opened to mixed reviews at the Arcola Theatre in London in May 2009.
Australian television publicity stunt
In August 2009, Australia's Seven Network used real footage of James Bulger's abduction to promote its crime drama City Homicide. The use of the footage was criticised by Bulger's mother, and Seven apologised.
On 24 August, co-hosts on Seven's breakfast show Sunrise asked whether the killers were now living in Australia, in an apparent tie-in with that week's episode of City Homicide. They answered the question the next day by relaying the Australian government's denial that the killers had been settled in the country.
Soap opera storyline
A storyline in the British soap opera Hollyoaks was set to begin in December 2009, but cancelled after the series makers gave Bulger's mother Denise Fergus a private screening.
The storyline was to feature Loretta Jones and her friend Chrissy, who had been given new identities before arriving in the village, after being convicted of murdering a child at the age of 12.
Scholarly reference
In 2010 the critical theorist Terry Eagleton introduced his book On Evil with the story of Bulger's murder.
Playground (2016 film)
Plac Zabaw (also known as Playground) is a 2016 Polish drama thriller directed by Bartosz M. Kowalski. The story includes Thompson and Venables, but presented as "Szymek" and "Czarek". The case is used at the end of the film, as both boys abduct a little boy from a mall, taking him to a railroad, abusing and murdering him.
2019 Oscars controversy
In January 2019, the short film Detainment was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 91st Academy Awards ("The Oscars"). The film is based on transcripts of the police interviews with Thompson and Venables after their arrests. Bulger's mother was not consulted before the film's release. She criticised its nomination and circulated a petition to have the film removed from the nominations. In response, the film's director Vincent Lambe refused to withdraw the film from consideration, saying that "it would defeat the purpose of making the film".
See also
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- Billington, Michael (9 May 2009). "Monsters". The Guardian (theatre review). London, UK. Archived from the original on 9 August 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
- McAlpine, Emma (15 May 2009). "Monsters at the Arcola Theatre". Spoonfed London. Archived from the original on 23 May 2009. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
- "Seven 'sorry' for Bulger ad". The Sydney Morning Herald. Australia: Nine Entertainment co. 30 August 2009. Archived from the original on 29 January 2024. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
- "Rumour-fuelled ratings chase". ABC (abc.net.au). 31 August 2009. Archived from the original on 4 September 2009. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
- "Hollyoaks producers drop scenes echoing the killing of James Bulger". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. 15 November 2009. Archived from the original on 8 November 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
- Coles, Richard (30 May 2010). "On Evil by Terry Eagleton". The Guardian (book review). London, UK. Archived from the original on 8 January 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- "Detainment makes Oscars short list". Winchester Today. 21 December 2018. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- "James Bulger's mother 'disgusted' over nomination". Oscars 2019. BBC News. 22 January 2019. Archived from the original on 22 January 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
- "Bulger mother calls on director to drop out of awards". Oscars 2019. BBC News. 24 January 2019. Archived from the original on 24 January 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
- "Bulger film director 'won't withdraw' from Oscars race". BBC News. 24 January 2019. Archived from the original on 24 January 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
External links
- "The murder of James Bulger". Notorious murders / Young. truTV (trutv.com). Crime Library. Archived from the original on 21 January 2009.
- "How Edlington case follows course paved by Bulger trial". BBC News. 22 January 2010. Archived from the original on 16 December 2011.
- "Recollections from key people involved in the Bulger trial, ten years on". The Guardian. 6 February 2003.
- "'James would be 18 now – the pain of losing him will never go away'". The Observer. 2 March 2008.
- "Michael Jackson's 'Heal the World' released to support new Liverpool James Bulger centre for bullied children". Liverpool Daily Post. 8 October 2009. Archived from the original on 16 October 2009.
- "James Bulger's father on surviving 20 years of grief". BBC News. 12 February 2013.
- Williams, Zoe (5 July 2013). "Jon Venables: 'How attitudes towards criminality have changed and hardened'". The Guardian.
- Freeman-Powell, Shamaan (18 April 2019). "Legal dilemma of granting child killers anonymity". BBC News.
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