Murder of James Bulger

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James Bulger
James Bulger
Born	16 March 1990(1990-03-16) Liverpool, Merseyside, England
Died	12 February 1993 (aged 2) Walton, Liverpool, England
Cause of death	Murdered By Jon Venables and Robert Thompson

James Patrick Bulger (16 March 1990 – 12 February 1993) was the victim of a abduction and murder. His killers were two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. The murder took place in Merseyside, England.^[1]

The murder of a child by two other children caused public shock, outrage and grief, particularly around Merseyside.

James disappeared from the New Strand Shopping Centre, where he had been with his mother Denise, on 12 February 1993 and his mutilated body was found on a railway line at Bootle on 14 February. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, then 10 , were charged with James's murder on 22 February 1993 and remanded in custody.

The two boys, by then 11, were found guilty of murder at Preston Crown Court on 24 November 1993. The trial judge 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". Shortly after the trial, Lord Taylor of Gosforth, the Lord Chief Justice, ordered that the two boys should serve a minimum of ten years, which would have made them eligible for release in February 2003 (they had been charged with James's murder on 22 February 1993), when they would be 20.

The popular press felt the sentence was too lenient, and the editors of The Sun newspaper handed a petition bearing 300,000 signatures to Home Secretary Michael Howard, in a bid to increase the time spent by both boys in custody. This campaign was successful, and in 1995 Howard announced that the boys would be kept in custody for a minimum of 15 years, meaning that they would not be considered for release until February 2008, by which time they would be 25.

In 1997, the Court of Appeal ruled that Howard's decision to set a 15-year tariff was unlawful, and the Home Secretary lost his power to set minimum terms for life-sentence prisoners under 18. The High Court and European Court of Human Rights have ruled that politicians can no longer decide how long a life sentence prisoner can remain behind bars.

Thompson and Venables were released on a life licence in June 2001, after serving eight years, when a parole hearing concluded that public safety would not be threatened by their rehabilitation.^[2] An injunction was imposed after the trial preventing the publication of details about the boys, for fear of reprisals. The injunction remained in force following their release, so their new identities and locations could not be published.

[edit] The murder

Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were truanting from school on 12 February 1993. They were in their final year of primary school at Walton St Mary Church of England Primary School.^[3]

That day, in the New Strand Shopping Centre, Bootle, they attempted to walk off with a young child. They had succeeded in luring a two-year-old boy from his mother, and were taking him out of the shopping centre when she noticed him missing, ran outside, and called him back. For this, the boys were charged with attempted abduction; the charge was dropped when the jury failed to reach a verdict.

CCTV footage of James Bulger being kidnapped by Venables and Thompson (above Bulger), recorded on shopping centre CCTV

That afternoon, James Bulger (often mentioned as "Jamie Bulger" in press reports, he was never called Jamie" by his family), from nearby Kirkby, went with his mother Denise to a nearby shopping centre. While there, Mrs Bulger realised her son had disappeared. The two boys had taken him by the hand and led him out of the precinct. This moment was captured on a CCTV camera at 15:39.

The boys took Bulger on a 2½ mile (4 km) walk. They led him to a canal, where he sustained injuries to his head and face, after apparently being dropped to the ground. Later, a witness reported seeing Bulger being kicked in the ribs by one of the boys, to prod him along.

During the walk, the boys were seen by 38 people.^{[citation needed]} Some reported there was bruising on Bulger's face, while others reported that he was laughing, the boys seemingly alternating between hurting and distracting him. A few members challenged the older boys, but they claimed they were looking after their younger brother, or that he was lost and they were taking him to the police station. They led Bulger to a railway line near the disused Walton & Anfield railway station on Walton Lane.

From facts at trial, at this location one of the boys threw blue modelling paint on Bulger's face. They kicked him and hit him with bricks, stones and a 22 lb (10 kg) iron bar. They then placed batteries in his mouth . False reports claiming the batteries were pushed up his anus were spread by a chain letter^[4]. The letter also claimed that Bulger's fingers were cut off using scissors; this is also untrue. James suffered skull fractures as a result of the iron bar being struck around his head; this wound is believed to have caused his death.

Before they left him, the boys laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, in hopes that a train would hit him and make his death appear an accident. Two days later, on 14 February, Bulger was discovered; a forensic pathologist testified that he had died before his body was run over by a train.

As the circumstances surrounding the death became clear, tabloid newspapers compared the killers with Myra Hindley and Ian Brady who had committed the Moors Murders during the 1960s. They denounced the people who had seen Bulger but not realised the trouble he was in as the "Liverpool 38" (see Kitty Genovese, bystander effect). The railway embankment upon which his body had been discovered was flooded with hundreds of bunches of flowers: one of these floral tributes, a single rose, was laid by Thompson. Within days, he and Venables were arrested, after an investigation led by Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby of the Merseyside Police.

Forensics tests confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as on Bulger's body. Both had blood on their shoes; blood on Thompson's shoe was matched to Bulger through DNA tests.

The boys were charged with Bulger's murder on 22 February 1993. They were the youngest people charged with murder in England and Wales during the 20th century.

[edit] The trial

Venables and Thompson at the time of their arrest

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). At the close of the trial, the judge ruled their names should be released (probably because of the nature of the murder and the public reaction ), and they were identified along with lengthy descriptions of their lives and backgrounds. Public shock was compounded by the release, after the trial, of mug shots taken during questioning by police. The pictures showed frightened children, and many found it hard to believe such a crime had been perpetrated by two people so young.

Five hundred protesters gathered at South Sefton Magistrates' Court 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 took place at Preston Crown Court, conducted as an adult trial with the accused in the dock away from their parents, and the judge and court officials in legal regalia. Each boy sat in view of the court on raised chairs (so they could see out of the dock designed for adults) accompanied by two social workers. 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 criticised by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled they had not received a fair trial.

The boys, who did not testify in their defence, were found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment at a young offenders' institution at Her Majesty's Pleasure. The judge, Mr Justice Morland, set the minimum period at eight years. This was increased on appeal to ten years by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Taylor of Gosforth. It was increased to 15 years by the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, "acting in the public interest". This was overturned in 1997 by the Law Lords. In October 2000, Lord Chief Justice Harry Woolf reduced their minimum sentence by two years in recognition of their good behaviour and remorse shown in detention, restoring the original trial judge's eight-year recommended minimum.^[5]

In court, details of the backgrounds of Thompson and Venables were not admitted. Thompson was one of the youngest of seven boys. His mother, a lone parent, was an alcoholic. His father, who left home when Thompson was five, was a drinker who beat and sexually abused his wife and children. Despite his quiet and friendly manner, Thompson came from a home in which it was normal for the older children to attack the younger ones, and Thompson was invariably on the receiving end.

Venables' parents were also separated. His brother and sister had educational problems and attended special schools, while his mother suffered psychiatric problems. Following his parents' separation, Venables became isolated and an attention-seeker. At school, he banged his head on walls. No effort was made to find the cause of his distress.

Other media commentators blamed the behaviour of Venables and Thompson on their families, or their social situation in one of the most deprived areas of the UK. The Liverpool Echo described it as 'a wounded city... The region's economy was on its knees, and unemployment was soaring'. A 2001 Ofsted report on Liverpool's schools said 'the city of Liverpool has the highest degree of deprivation in the country'. Following the murder, the boys' mothers, Susan Venables and Ann Thompson, were attacked in the street and vilified in the press.

Thompson's father had abandoned his wife and children five years previously, one week before the family home was burned down. Ann Thompson was a heavy drinker who found it difficult to control her seven children. Notes obtained by author Blake Morrison from an NSPCC case conference on the family, described it as 'appalling'. The children 'bit, hammered, battered, {and} tortured each other'. Incidents in the report included Philip (the third child) threatening his older brother Ian with a knife. Ian asked to be taken into foster care, and when he was returned to his family, he attempted suicide with painkillers. Ann and Philip had also attempted suicide.

Venables' family was less chaotic; although his parents were separated, they lived near each other, and he lived at his father's house two days a week. Both his older brother and younger sister had learning disabilities severe enough to attend special schools for children too disabled to be taught in the main system. Venables was hyperactive, and had attempted to strangle a boy in a fight at school. The police had been called to Susan Venables's house in 1987, when she left her children (then 3, 5 and 7) alone in the house for three hours. Case notes from that incident describe Susan's 'severe depressive problem' and suicidal tendencies.

[edit] Appeal and release

In 1999, lawyers for Venables and Thompson 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. They claimed that Howard's intervention led to a charged atmosphere, making a fair trial impossible. The Court found in the boys' favour.

The European Court case led to the new Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, reviewing the minimum sentence. In October 2000, he recommended the tariff be reduced from ten to eight years, adding that young offenders' institutions were 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 the February of that year. The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, approved the decision, and they were released within weeks.^[6] They were given new identities and moved to secret locations under a "witness protection"-style action. They will live on a 'life licence', which allows their immediate re-incarceration for an unlimited time if they are seen to be a danger to the public. As part of their conditions, they were required to end contact with each other.

[edit] Subsequent controversies

The Manchester Evening News named the secure institutions in which the pair were housed, in possible breach of the injunction against publicity which 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.

The injunction against reporting the boys' whereabouts applies only in England and Wales, and other countries can publish such information. With the internet, many expected their identities and whereabouts to become public. In June 2001, Venables' mother was quoted by the News of the World as saying she expected her son to be 'dead within four weeks of release'. Her lawyers complained to the Press Complaints Commission saying Mrs Venables had said no such thing. By that time, the phrase had been widely re-reported.

No publication or vigilante action against Thompson or Venables has occurred. Despite this, Bulger's mother, Denise, told how in 2004 she received an anonymous tip-off that helped her locate Thompson. She said she saw him but was 'paralysed with hatred' and did not communicate with him .

More than five years after their release, stories and rumours continue to circulate about Venables and Thompson. In January 2006, The Sunday Mirror reported that Robert Thompson had fathered a child with a girlfriend unaware of his past.^[7] The paper reported that Thompson had taken heroin since his release, and had been accused of shoplifting, but that he now worked "in an office" and earned "a reasonable wage". In March 2006, it was reported in The Sun that Thompson was in a "settled relationship" with a gay male partner who was aware of his conviction, and that he had been living with the man at a "secret address" in North West England for "several months".^[8]

In May 2006, it was rumoured that a man called Sean Walsh,sentenced to 15 years for attempting to kill his pregnant girlfriend and her three-year-old daughter, was Robert Thompson under his new identity. Walsh had moved to Ireland in 2001, the year the Bulger killers were released, was known to have convictions as a juvenile in the UK and had been in regular contact with the psychiatric services in Wigan (20 miles from Liverpool) from 15. At one point, Walsh claimed to be Thompson but the authorities dismissed this.

In June 2006, a widely circulated e-mail claimed Dante Arthurs, accused of murdering a child in Perth, Western Australia, was one of James Bulger's killers under a new identity. Again, this was untrue.^[9][10] This claim has also been denied by authorities - they would have been unlikely to have been granted visas to live in Australia.

In April 2007, it was reported that the Home Office had spent £13,000 on an injunction preventing a non-UK magazine from revealing the identities of the killers.^[11][12] In September 2007, it was rumoured that Robert Thompson was living under the first name "James" in Carshalton, Greater London, with his girlfriend and their young child. An older woman was also listed at the same address. This older woman's maiden name is similar to the maiden name of Thompson's mother.

On 27 May 2007, The People claimed Jon Venables had become a Christian. Now 24 and living with a new identity, Venables reportedly attends Sunday night service, midweek prayer group and a Bible class. Venables has asked a ministerial team to pray for him and have his sins forgiven.^[13] The UK's Daily Mail has reported that Venables is getting married to a girlfriend who has no idea of his true identity. He has been advised not to say anything to her about the Bulger murder.^[14]

In June 2007, a computer game based on the TV 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 his killers, Venables and Thompson. The scene in the game involves a CGI (Computer-generated image) detective pointing out the picture and then asking the player to investigate the kidnapping. Bulger's family complained, along with many others, and the game was subsequently withdrawn by its UK distributor, GSP. The game’s developer, Legacy Interactive (an American company), 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'.^[15]

On 16 December 2007, The People newspaper claimed that Jon Venables was stabbed during a fight after punching another man who was flirting with his girlfriend. The newspaper reported that Venables had to be rushed to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. This rumour has yet to be confirmed.^[16]

[edit] 2008 memorial appeal

On 14 March 2008 an appeal to set up a Red Balloon Learner Centre in Merseyside in memory of James Bulger was launched by Denise Fergus, his mother, and Esther Rantzen.^{[17][18][19][20]}

[edit] See also

• Mary Bell

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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• Article about James Bulger at Crimelibrary.com
• Murder of Jamie Bulger at Snopes.com
• James Bulger murder 1993 at MURDERUK