", James Bulger's killers are once again being branded monsters. By contrast, Ann Thompson was demonised as a fat, drunk, uncaring mother. These are the ugly manifestations of a society that is becoming unworthy of that name. [102], 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. [4] Both boys were reported to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, and Venables in particular told of experiencing nightmares and flashbacks of the murder. [60] 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, stating: "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. [97] On 7 March, media reports said that he had been accused of child pornography offences. [83] 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 f**king hilarious." 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 . [30] Forensic tests confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as found on Bulger's body. They said their son met Robert Thompson in September 1991, when Jon was transferred from another school. Venables worked full-time in a job with anti-social hours, earning close to the minimum wage, the court heard. 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. Then in 2007, he started drinking heavily and taking drugs, including cocaine and the recently-banned substance mephedrone. Faced with the near-inconceivability of the crime itself, and two suspects below the age at which the law judges young people as morally capable, the media and the public needed surrogate criminals to bear the blame, to be the object of their sense of outrage and desire for retribution. In 2018, the tranquillity of the Isle of Bute was rocked by an extremely barbaric murder, the after-effects of which still reverberate today. On 12th February 1993, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables kidnapped, tortured and killed two-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Two days later, after a huge police search, James's battered body was found on a railway line more than two miles away. There is, like, a little paint factory. Mrs Venables said: 'I think it was because the class group was too big for them to go in . Both boys were said to have had difficult home lives and both had been playing truant from school on the day of the killing. 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. Media descriptions of him as "quivering" and "vulnerable" compared with the "impassive" Thompson at Preston crown court in 1993 served to define him as the more impressionable of the two. Yet prior to the murder of the two-year-old, there were signs Venables, then 10, did not just follow. Sometimes, he led. 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". [18][19] Two people challenged 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. (modern). Our feelings haven't changed towards him. In the picture, it is Venables who is holding James's hand. Venables was later charged with three offences. . In the weeks and months and years that followed they have been attacked and vilified by the press. The nurture side can exacerbate the condition, but this abnormality of brain function is primarily an inherited, DNA-caused condition. Does brain chemistry have a role to play, as well as contributions from various environmental factors? [38] 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. Left on her own, Thompson sought consolation in drink and was often to be found in the bar in Higson's Top House rather than looking after the children in her chaotic home. In my judgment, your conduct was both cunning and very wicked. Although they were separated from their parents, they were within touching distance when their families attended the trial. In November 1993, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables became the youngest convicted murderers in British history. Venables was held at the Red Bank secure unit in St. Helens, Merseyside, which was not revealed until after he had been released. Late that year, he was cautioned for possession of cocaine. after discovering she dated child killer Jon Venables Mr Venables said that the two boys had played truant together four times before, adding that he caught them twice.

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