At night, for instance, the two boys would lie in bed together and suck each others thumbs. However, you will find some great articles which you can comment on right now in our Comment section. Superintendent Albert Kirby, who headed the investigation, doesn't believe in the under-belly of Liverpool nonsense or stuff about the disintegration of modern society, the collapse of the nineties cities. On the 20 year anniversary of the murder of James Bulger, BBC Radio 5 Live's Shelagh Fogarty recalls the trial of his young killers. This time, curiosity took the upper hand: 'I wanted to see what it was like,' he said. The attitude when you live where we live is that you have to be tough or else you dont survive, she said. Jon, who had the most trouble sleeping, appeared fearful of Susan, and was terrified, above all, of her condemnation. Could they have planned to do it in advance? The right will draw attention to the broken homes, the single parents, the persistent truancy. One woman asked how James had injured his forehead. Weeping, she said: 'I wasn't actually on the railway track because there is a fence, but I went up the side. . Superintendent Kirby is a religious man. Susan Venables Facebook: susan.venables.9 Lives in Mellor, Blackburn With Darwen, . It was to be an adult trial, both boys appearing every day in the full gaze of whoever was in that room, but neither giving evidence directly to the court. Shame? From their point of view it makes perfect sense. Thousands of members of Unison, Unite and the GMB unions are set to walk out across England and Wales on Monday as part of continued industrial action in the health service, Performers taking part in a parade involving costumes, lion dances and floats, during Chinese New Year celebrations in London, Everton fans hold up banners protesting against the board of directors during their Premier League match against West Ham at the London Stadium, A pair of swans fly over a frozen pond in Bushy Park in London, People take part in a demonstration in support of trans rights outside the UK Government Office in Edinburgh, A member of the Royal College of Nursing holds their dog whilst on the picket line outside Kings College Hospital in London, as nurses take industrial action over pay, The scene on the A39 Quantock Road in Bridgwater after a double-decker bus overturned in a crash involving a motorcycle, A man walks dogs in snowy conditions in a park in Hexham. At Preston Crown Court Thompsons mother Ann and Venables parents Neil and Sue sat side by side. Susan Venable - we found 141 people search records: 55 CVs and social profiles with photos, 50 addresses & phone numbers, 1 real estate objects, 6 Susan Venable's cars, 2 companies. His response couldn't have been more different as he sank into the oversized blazer he was wearing. It set the tone for the years ahead in which there was to be no respite from the hatred. It is here, of course, that Jon met and made friends with fellow eccentric, Robert Thompson. James' mother Denise believes they should have remained in jail for life and has tirelessly campaigned against their rights to anonymity. The family was put up in a hostel temporarily and later relocated by the social services. Neil Venables, 40, said he felt "just devastated, thinking of that little boy'. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? He has had his holidays like everyone else. When he played truant he was scared she would come and find him. Venables, who was released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years for the murder of two-year-old James, was returned to prison last November after he was caught with the pictures. Susan Venables has blamed "weakness" for her son's role in the killing of James Bulger, claiming that he "got involved with the wrong person". Facebook gives people the power. The first Susan Venables knew they had stayed away from school was when she saw one of Jon's classmates on her way home with the gerbils. Thompson got better opportunities there than if hed been walking the streets in Walton, says the author. It would be a week before we heard their voices, in hours of taped police interviews, They stopped us all in our tracks. "I think about little James and what he must have gone through, how they must feel. His grip was so strong that it took two people to pry Jon off of the boy. One day they stayed out until 10.30pm and Jon received a severe reprimand from his mother. But his outbursts of anger grew worse and he was suspended for trying to throttle a boy with a ruler. A newsroom reporter who was not working on the case fended off transatlantic interview demands, saying that it was not enough that he had a Liverpool accent. In quest of companionship, he occasionally bullied his younger brother into truanting with him, and, in an effort to impress his peers, frequently boasted of his late-night exploits on the railway line, but failed to attract much attention. 'Sometimes I told Robbie to do things so he does,' he told a police officer, with pride in his voice. He did like to be liked, and loved to have friends, and he has got involved with the wrong person.". They deal with drugs, they deal with everything. They passed 36 people, with one recalling how they urged the boys to take their 'little brother' home because he was 'crying for his mummy'. Best of all, they would spend time on the Walton railway line where Robert had built a den close to the bridge. However, given that the tension in the household was persistent throughout the most crucial of Jons formative years, the belief that he had moved through the ordeal entirely unaffected is questionable. I just think of James and his Dad and about all that fun with his little boy, like I had with Jon.". In the business world, too many people think it's all about being hard, tough, ambitious, or having grit. Few had the patience to be friends with him, only his younger brother and a couple of lads who lived nearby. . ROBERT had a reputation in the neighbourhood for being a troublemaker. He was jailed for two years before being granted parole again in July 2013.. The Americans fed 1 1/2 minutes of the Jamie Bulger story into a 22-minute bulletin of national and international news. "We are committed to driving sustainability in the leather industry, through the commitment of. The details of Jamess death were sickening. Such a childish voice. sp. What upsets me is I've no way of bringing him up for the rest of his young years so he's going to lose all his childhood. As a result of the incident, Jon's mother decided to move him to another school. The two bumped into each other - literally - in the school playground in the middle of a fight. Venables on the other hand was becoming increasingly agitated in the police interviews. Instead, she was involved in an ITV documentary with Sir Trevor McDonald that will air on Thursday. "It is hard to take in really. And in Lower Lane police station when he was being questioned about the murder she had to be told that her harsh words were inhibiting him from confessing. Many of us had dined together most nights throughout the trial, mulling it all over but distracting ourselves, too. Less thanfive hours laterthe verdicts were in. In the last few years she stopped drinking in the Top House and tried to keep things together. fun to be with" and always had plenty of friends. Grainy CCTV footage later showed the innocent toddler being led away by Venables and Thompson, who marched the little boy through the streets of Bootle for two miles - a walk that would have taken hours given his size. The toddler's mum Denise Bulger was at the counter of a butchers in the Strand shopping centre in Bootle, Liverpool, on February 12, 1993, when she briefly let go of her son's hand to get some change from her purse. Murder of James Bulger. The most agonising thing about the whole case was that so many people had stopped them and questioned them. His body, defiled and broken in two by a train, two miles from where hed been taken, was foundtwo days later. I used to get them for myself at night time. Keep them apart or he'll get into trouble, they said. Boy A - Robert Thompson - was the shorter and more rounded of the two. Jon breaks into hysteria whenever the subject is mentioned. See that cell. On November 24, 1993, the two boys, by then aged 11, became the youngest defendants to be sentenced for murder in a British court. Neil explained to him that the school they attended was special, and that Jon wouldnt be accepted. ql zo. That's the thing that upsets me because obviously, where I was standing poor little James must have been not far . Occasionally, when the children would be left sitting on the red wall outside the house too long, one of the neighbours would call the police to go and get her out of the Top House. Tweet. The only sign he was discomforted by hearing it was a near constant pulling of his tongue in his hands. CCTV images revealed how James had been lured away by Thompson and Venables, who was also aged 10. Her warnings arent being heeded, but 25 years on, I think she is probably right. When she turned around moments later, her son was gone. Last week the author Angela Phillips spoke of how the gentle son of the female friend of hers turned into a fascist skinhead: 'The boy his mother wanted him to become was not man enough for the world he was forced to inhabit. Her family were dignified throughout, but on that day one of theBulgerfamily supporters allowed themselvesa loud 'YES' as the verdicts came in. Guilty of abducting and murdering James PatrickBulger. Susan Venables has blamed weakness for her sons role in the killing of James Bulger, claiming that he got involved with the wrong person. But I still kept him in if he was naughty or anything like that.'. The two had an aberrant relationship with one another, in the sense that it was almost as though they had never divorced. . Grainy CCTV footage shows them walking James away from the Strand . By now the Venables were reunited as a result of the court case. They sat just feet from me, perched on the edge of their wooden seat, smartly dressed and hunched in shame just below their son, Jon. Susan was known as the town " whore". In some families this was the third generation to be unemployed. "An awful mistake for 10 year olds is shoplifting not murdering a 2 year old FFS," another angry viewer tweeted. ', They sagged off in the afternoon and walked around the shops in County Road, near Walton. It was this empowering chemistry between them that some argued set into motion the life-altering events that would devastate a family, challenge a community, and rock a nations core in the disquieting months that followed. Lady Penelope was his favourite character because she was rich, followed by Brains with the glasses. It seems likely that he was bullied. In 1999, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the pair did not receive a fair trial and awarded costs and expenses of 29,000 to Jon Venables and 15,000 to Robert Thompson. It was not until much later, when questioned as to his involvement in the death of James Bulger, that Roberts resentment towards the new baby became suddenly and painfully apparent. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. The bleached houses were peppered with burglar alarms, the shabby ones did not look worth the trouble. Mrs Thompson said she was so often called to Walton Lane police station to retrieve her truanting son that they should have given her a job there. During the Bulger investigation, police checked the details of 50 videos Mr Venables had hired in recent months. They were sent home to their mother at one point, but after attempting suicide with overdoses, were placed back into care. Robert is not believed to have reoffended - Venables has been convicted twice since being set free. Then they had carried, dragged and kicked him along a two and a half mile journey, at times swinging him violently in the air or dropping him against the road, until they reached the railway where they stoned him with bricks, bashed his head with a 22lb iron bar, and left him dead across the tracks to be cut in half by a passing goods train. The days James was abducted, February 12 1993, I was a young reporter in my home city of Liverpool. Why would I want to kill him? he said, referring to the slain toddler. The prosecution, led by Richard Henriques QC, made its case quite simply really, using the journey they took James on to tell the story. His mates called him a girl because whenever there was something on his mind he sucked his thumb. Yet, even while Susan admitted to being under huge emotional strain on a daily basis, the couple later denied that her constant hysterics would have encroached on Jon in any way, considering he was still in infancy at the time. For she added: 'But he's not a murderer.'. He began telling his father that he believed his parents loved his brother and sister more than they did him, and, at one point, implored his father to send him to school with his siblings. Then, one Friday in February, they discovered a new rule to break: they murdered a two-year-old. "My heart really goes out to them. this weekend for breaching the terms of his early release, the parents of both the Bulger killers continue to stand by them. I wonder how many parents looked at their sons of a similar age that week, sure in the knowledge their own children could never be so wicked, but asked themselves anyway "what would I do if?". Meanwhile, A petition demanding a public inquiry into James Bulger's murder case has got nearly 15,000 signatures in one day. Thompson admitted nothing. The phone-in programme, as ever, was a place to turn to try to find reasons - evil, poverty, neglect, possessed anything to explain what felt inexplicable. He would often have to stay in class at break times to catch up. He believes these were evil boys. The breaking point came when Jon was suspended from Broad Square after attempting to choke a classmate with a twelve-inch wooden ruler. sons, were settled in council houses within easy reach of the institutions where their sons were being held. He would go to bed. "All he said when we've said 'Why didn't you run away?' "What he's done is wrong so he needs to be punished. King Charles III shakes hands with Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky as he welcomes at Buckingham Palace, in London, ahead of an audience during his first visit to the UK since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was when Jon turned seven that Susan and the children had relocated to Norris Green, one of Liverpools larger, more reputable areas. 'I walked round for a couple of hours trying to find them. Mrs Thompson claimed she had been the victim of revenge attacks after her identity became known. Meanwhile, Thompson has not re-offended since his release, and is believed to be in a long-term relationship with a man who knows who he really is. He is one of those children that if you told him to put his hand in the fire, he would. 'It was very dark and I shouted down, shouted his name. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. A torrent of questions erupted from the moment the grim news came out that James Bulger's body had been found on a railway line in Liverpool and the last people seen with him were two ten-year-olds, captured on grainy CCTV footage. Truanting, or 'sagging off', had become a way of life for Robert. We have found 88 people in the UK with the name Susan Venables. When the fisticuffs ended, impressed by each other's performance, they made friends. Trauma? The pattern of bullying among the brothers, which had been noted by the Head mistress of the boys school, appeared to descend down the line, with the eldest Thompson brother beating the one just below him in age, and that brother beating the brother below him, in turn. His former wife would send their boys up the street to give their father the fingers through the bay windows of his mother's house. Although Susan couldnt recall any dramatic change in Jons behavior, his teachers there expressed some concern that Jon had become upset and difficult following the separation. 'I thought he was all right,' said Boy B, as he was known in court - Jon Venables. They occasionally exchanged furtive glances. His mother, Susan, attributed this behavior with peer pressure and hyperactivity, and put him on a special diet, though it did nothing to quell his frequent emotional outbursts. In Crosbies corner shop Ian, the next oldest to Robert, was able to tot up the shopping in his mind before the cash register rang up the total. The couple, who also have a 13- year-old son, who has learning difficulties, and a 9-year-old daughter, denied that Jon was bullied by his brother or that he watched violent horror films at home. The Royal Mint of a 50p coin featuring Professor Albus Dumbledore as part of a Harry Potter-themed collection. 'Provided you have no court orders for debts already,' the man on the phone would add helpfully. He has had security with loving parents and a loving brother and sister.". She acknowledged her son had committed a terrible crime but claimed that her innocent younger children were being denied a proper education because of having to abandon their homes to escape attacks. One police officer described how Jon Venables was so small, his legs were swinging in the air as he sat in the custody office. Then there were the separated parents, the poverty, the truanting, the videos. "Just to let you know that even though footage was used of me on the CH4 programme, I had no part in it," she tweeted. Thompson & Venebales. Mrs Venables has also said that she felt heartbreak for James and his parents and shame for her son. The case of James, a two-year-old who was snatched from a shopping centre in Bootle, Liverpool, in 1993, before being tortured and left to die, shocked the nation. So much happened whilst I was there involving Jon. One time they sagged off with Robert's younger brother, which went disastrously wrong. . She said that Jon was always "loving, caring, thoughtful and considerate . This happened, more often than not, at night, when they refused to go to bed when told. Susan, aged 36, a sharp woman . Online Marketing For Your Business TWO BOYS. Venables was a different creature. The hardliners in the police have a simpler explanation. and things like that is that he was frightened. Without anyone in the family to turn to for support, he had to look outside for people whose swaggering aggression he could emulate. At Radio City in Liverpool the calls were coming through from Australia, New Zealand and Canada. I would say he was provoked. For a start, there were only three children, of whom Jon was the middle. Their kids have got everything. They rejected suggestions that he could have watched Child's Play Three, a film that his father had rented three weeks before James's death, which, it has been claimed, included scenes similar to those of the attack on the two-year-old.