Thompson and Venables moved away from Liverpool after their sons' convictions eight years ago. The boys joked about pushing Bulger into the canal. It seems the natural assumption. It is just heartbreaking.". [98][99][100] 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. "[96] Venables began living independently in March 2002. The judge revealed that Venables had been living in Cheshire at the time of the offences, and that the case was dealt with by Cheshire police and Cheshire probation service. [36] The boys denied the charges of murder, abduction and attempted abduction. Venables was later charged with three offences. The ban relating to Venables was partially lifted on Friday at the Old Bailey after he was jailed for the offences under the 1978 Protection of Children Act. Obscenity and Pornography and Videos Section 90, Video recordings: suitability", "Jon Venables sent back to prison over child porn offence", "16 December 1999, summary of the judgement of the ECHR", "Bulger killers prove child criminals can be rehabilitated", "James Bulger mother: killer Jon Venables is 'where he belongs', "Bulger killers released: what the home secretary said", "Twenty years after the murder of Liverpool toddler James Bulger, his mum Denise Fergus reflects on the past and the battles still to come", "Bulger killer Jon Venables posed 'trivial' risk to the public, said psychiatrist", "13K To Protect Bulger Killers' New IDs-Injunction", "13,000 Spent protecting Bulger killers' identities", "Calls to raise age of criminal responsibility rejected", "Man sentenced for lying over James Bulger killer", "Denise Fergus calls for crack down after sickening James Bulger Facebook group", "Attorney general takes action over 'Bulger killer images', "Margate woman jailed for 'cruel' James Bulger tweets", "Web troll who targeted James Bulger's mum has sentence reduced on appeal", "Man jailed for stalking mother of murdered toddler James Bulger", "Two admit posting 'Bulger killer photos', "Tina Malone avoids jail for contempt of court over Bulger killer Facebook post", "Jon Venables: Woman who posted picture said to show killer avoids jail", "Mother of James Bulger calls for Venables parole inquiry after reports he slept with carer", "Cover-up denial in case of Bulger killer's sex romps", "Bulger killer Venables faces 'extremely serious' claim", "James Bulger killer Jon Venables 'accused of child porn offences', "Bulger killer Jon Venables jailed again 'for child porn', "Jon Venables back in prison 'over child pornography offences', "Jack Straw refuses to reveal why Bulger killer has returned to jail", "Bulger's mother says Venables 'should be identified', "I'm living in fear over 'child killer' rumours", "My ordeal at being mistaken for Jon Venables: Terror of young father accused of being Bulger killer", "Jon Venables: man wrongly accused of being James Bulger killer 'living in fear of vigilantes', "Bulger killer Jon Venables faces child porn charges", "James Bulger killer Jon Venables is 'suspected paedophile', "James Bulger killer Jon Venables jailed for two years for downloading child pornography", "James Bulger Killer Guilty of Child Porn", "Child porn charges send James Bulger's killer back to jail", "Jon Venables jailed for two years over child porn", "Jon Venables jailed for two years over child pornography charges", "Jon Venables case: Inquiry ordered into parole supervision", "Report finds no probation lapse over Venables images", "James Bulger killer Jon Venables denied parole", "Breach Sees Child Killer Venables Get New ID", "James Bulger's killer Jon Venables could get second new identity after pictures leaked on internet", "City man defends decision to publish photos of Bulger killer", "James Bulger killer Jon Venables to be freed", "Bulger killer Jon Venables released from prison", "Child killer Jon Venables 'back in jail' after latest arrest", "James Bulger killer Jon Venables charged over indecent images", "Jon Venables jailed for owning 'paedophile manual' and a thousand indecent images of children", "James Bulger killer Jon Venables denied parole over child abuse images", "James Bulger killer Jon Venables' Christmas release bid dashed by parole delay", "James Bulger's father loses Jon Venables identity challenge", "Child killer of 2-year-old James Bulger, Jon Venables, might be sent to New Zealand", "James Bulger murder: Infamous child killer could move to Australia", "Jacinda Ardern on UK child-killer Jon Venables' possible relocation to NZ - 'Don't bother applying', "Family attacks use of Bulger case in 'funny' Fringe play", "Legacy Apologises For Law And Order Crime Photo", "Hollyoaks producers drop scenes echoing the killing of James Bulger", "Oscars 2019: James Bulger's mother 'disgusted' over nomination", "Oscars 2019: Bulger mother calls on director to drop out of awards", "Bulger film director 'won't withdraw' from Oscars race", Crime Library: The Murder of James Bulger, How Edlington case follows course paved by Bulger trial. [10][23] 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). [149] Bulger's mother circulated a petition to have the film removed from the nominations. v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex parte T", "Bulger killers: identifying them was a mistake", "Omand Review The Case of Jon Venables", "James Bulger killing: the case history of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson", "Outrage at call for Bulger killers' release", "Two youngsters who found a new rule to break", "Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. James was snatched from the Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Merseyside, on February 12, 1993, by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. But in damaged children that are easily influenced? The posts were seen by 24,000 people. Three months later, police cautioned him for possessing cocaine, and a requirement was added to his licence ordering him to address his alcohol and drug problems, the court was told. [2] Awaiting trial, they were held in the secure units where they would eventually be sentenced to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. I wish we could turn the clocks back,' Mrs Venables, 36, said. Late that year, he was cautioned for possession of cocaine. He always had plenty of friends. Case notes observe that her "serious depressive problem" made Venables suicidal. "My heart really goes out to them. They should instill values and principles in a child but they cannot be there all the time - as Denise Bulger (now Fergus) learned at a terrible cost. In court, Venables was the more emotional of the two defendants, crying openly and leaning against the shoulder of his social worker. 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. He is broken- hearted over it. The couple, who are living together again after a partial separation, said their feelings towards Jon had not changed despite the terrible crime. . Merseyside police clearly didn't like her and briefed the press that her manner in the interview room was inhibiting the confession of her newly-arrested son. James Bulgers death. 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. Abused as a child, Robert Maudsley killed abusers as an adult, 'She was the brightest thing': The murder of Alesha MacPhail, The link between serial killers and head trauma. [94], 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. "[4], The police quickly found low-resolution video images of Bulger's abduction from the New Strand Shopping Centre by two unidentified boys. [4] 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 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 second involved distributing three indecent photographs of children in February 2010, while a third involved distributing 42 images in February 2008. If they breached the rules or were deemed a risk to the public, they could be returned to prison. [127] On 5 January 2018, Venables was charged with unspecified offences relating to indecent images of children. It was a place that left a moral vacuum for two children who would go on to kill and leave the unanswered question: why did they do it? To find out what drove these two young children to such depravity, we must look, not only into the boys' backgrounds but also examine the wider issue of what motivates people in general - regardless of age - to carry out such abhorrent, deviant and wicked acts. He had been tortured - beaten with bricks and an iron bar. 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. As a result, we've decided to take you behind the scenes of the Mbappe family. [7], On 2 March 2010, the Ministry of Justice revealed that Venables had been returned to prison for an unspecified violation of the terms of his licence of release. 2019 legal challenge to lift anonymity refused, Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, National Association of Probation Officers, "James Bulger's father demands son's killer Jon Venables is stripped of anonymity", "Thompson & Venables Recommendations as to Tariffs to the Secretary of State for Home Affairs", "Bulger killers to be released on parole", "A question of release and redemption as Bulger killer goes back into custody", "Bulger James Patrick (19901993), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", "Death of James Bulger: Pt 1, The Video Tape", "Uncropped Mothercare CCTV still of the abduction, showing the timestamp at 15:42:32", "James Bulger in distress, say passers-by", "Schoolboy tells of James Bulger's tears: Children said murder case victim was a brother, court told", "James Bulger suffered multiple fractures: Pathologist reveals two-year-old had 42 injuries including fractured skull", "James Bulger suffered multiple fractures: Pathologist reveals two-year-old had 42 injuries including fractured skull. [5] 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. The naive words of the paedo's parents have come to light once again as a new documentary is set to air on ITV 25 years after the horrific murder. Sorry, the video player failed to load. (Error Code: 100013) The chilling words of Jon Venables' parents have resurfaced 25 years after he killed Jamie Bulger . As David James Smith, who interviewed Thompson, observed: "Ann lives in terror of being discovered by neighbours or anyone who might recognise her when she is out shopping. It is as if she thinks of herself walking around with a sign above her head: Mother of Bulger Murderer. Since his release in 2001 Thompson has kept a low profile and done his best to maintain his anonymity. Two days later, after a huge police search, James's battered body was found on a railway line more than two miles away. Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with abduction and murder. They bunked off, they shoplifted, they were violent; all these pieces in a pattern that made up a pair of empty, broken young lives. He came close to meeting Denise Fergus in 2004 when she managed to Exaggeration and gossip aside, a picture of neglect slowly emerged, a picture that focused on the pair's "bad parents", with the Daily Mail pronouncing: "Jon Venables, perhaps inevitably, is the classic product of a broken home." Paradoxically, this concern with her appearance later endeared her to reporters in court. Sign up to our newsletter to receive email updates on new series, features, and more from your favourite Crime+Investigation shows: Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? [150] Vincent Lambe, the film's director, said he would not be withdrawing the film, saying that "it would defeat the purpose of making the film". [42] After his appearances in court, Venables would strip off his clothes, saying: "I can smell James like a baby smell. The Old Bailey also heard that in 2008 Venables had posed as a mother offering to sell her daughter for sex during three online chats. Summing up, the judge, Mr Justice Morland, told them they had committed a crime of "unparalleled evil and barbarity". Could the pair of them have sought out a younger boy in order to gain dominion over him? Alex Davies-Jones Family: Children, Parents, Siblings, Husband. "[55] The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 clarified the rules on the availability of certain types of video material to children. [4] 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,[113][114] and penetrative rape of seven- or eight-year-olds. "[132], In late June 2019, it was reported that British officials had considered resettling Venables in Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, due to the high costs behind protecting his anonymity. Weeping, she said: 'I wasn't actually on the railway track because there is a fence, but I went up the side. Or could, perhaps, other factors have been at play? [9] The railway embankment upon which his body had been discovered was soon adorned with hundreds of bunches of flowers. That's the thing that upsets me because obviously, where I was standing poor little James must have been not far . He pleaded guilty to these charges. [82], 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. Were the duo shaped into monsters by their troubled upbringings? The killer was 10-years-old when he and Robert Thompson murdered two-year-old On 20 September 2008, he was held on suspicion of affray over a street fight with a man who claimed Venables had attacked his girlfriend. [4][21][32] 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. He has had Christmas presents. Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said that only 24-hour surveillance would have stopped Venables. "[46] 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. "[85][86] On 26 April, 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. Ian, aged 15, subsequently asked to be taken into care and when he was returned home he tried to kill himself by overdosing on painkillers. On 20 September 2008, he was held on suspicion of affray over a street fight with a man who claimed Venables had attacked his girlfriend. [4] Finally, the boys dropped a 10kg (22lb) railway fishplate on Bulger. [78][79], 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. [120] 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. He said he was frightened of Robert's older brother. Before their trial in November 1993, the press ferreted around the doorways and back alleys of Walton village, Liverpool, looking for any thing that might determine that these two 10-year-olds were indeed evil or the product of evil. Ann Thompson had been deserted by her husband five years before the killing of Jamie Bulger, and in the week after he left the family home burned down in an accidental fire. Head trauma, autism and childhood abuse more common in killers, study finds, In October of 2012, a little girl from Machynlleth, Powys, Wales, vanished after being sighted willingly climbing into a car near her home. [18] The boys went on a 2+12-mile (4-kilometre) walk across Liverpool; they were seen by around 38 people, but most bystanders did nothing to intervene. Had he gone on to lead such a life, that might have been the last the British public ever heard about Jon Venables. [143] 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. He has been educated. He had so many injuries it was hard to determine which had been fatal. They were convicted after a 17-day trial and only then were their names and faces revealed. Parents are invariably ordinary people with problems of their own. We still think the same of him as we always have. [43], 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. And when rumours spread that the boys had watched the slasher film Childs Play 3, the debate was reignited. He has had Christmas presents. 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. "[107][108], On 21 June 2010, Venables was charged with possession and distribution of indecent images of children. [141][142] In August 2009, Australia's Seven Network used real footage of the abduction to promote its crime drama City Homicide.
