Murder of James Bulger
James Bulger | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 16, 1990 |
| Died | February 12, 1993 (aged 2) |
| Cause of death | Murdered |
James Patrick Bulger (16 March 1990 – 12 February 1993) was the victim of a high-profile abduction and murder. His killers were two 10 year-old boys, Jon Venables (born 8 August 1982) and Robert Thompson (born 23 August, 1982), in Merseyside, England.
The murder of a child by two other children caused an immense public outpouring of shock, outrage and grief, particularly in Liverpool and the area around Merseyside.
The two boys, by then aged 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 "Many, many,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 behind bars, 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 both be 20 years old.
The popular press and certain sections of the public felt that the sentence was too lenient, and the editors of The Sun newspaper handed a petition bearing 300,000 signatures to then Home Secretary Michael Howard, in a bid to increase the time spent by both boys in custody. This campaign was ultimately successful, and in 1995 Michael Howard announced that the two boys would be kept in custody for a minimum of 15 years, now meaning that they would not be considered for release until February 2008, by which time they would both be 25 years old.
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 the age of 18 years. The High Court and European Court of Human Rights have since 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 of their life sentence (reduced for "good behaviour" (citation needed)), when a parole hearing concluded that public safety would not be threatened by their rehabilitation into society. An injunction 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.
The murder
Jon Venables and Robert Thompson had skipped school on February 12 1993. They were in their final year of primary school at Walton St Mary Church of England Primary School. [1]
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 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, the boys were later charged with attempted abduction; however, the charge was dropped when the jury failed to reach a verdict.
That same afternoon, James Bulger (often wrongly mentioned as "Jamie Bulger" in press reports - he was never known as this by his family), from nearby Kirkby, went on a trip with his mother Denise to a nearby shopping centre. Whilst there, at some point Mrs. Bulger realised that her son had gone missing. 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. At one point, they led him to a canal, where he sustained some injuries to his head and face, after apparently being dropped to the ground. Later on in their journey, a witness reported seeing Bulger being kicked in the ribs by one of the boys, to encourage him along.
During the entire walk, the boys were seen by no fewer than 38 people. Some of these people reported that there were signs of bruising on Bulger's face, while others reported that he 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 they were looking after their younger brother, or that he was lost and that they were taking him to the police station, and the boys were able to avoid being foiled. They eventually led Bulger to a section of railway line near Walton, Merseyside.
From the facts disclosed 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 (although false reports claimed that the batteries were pushed up his anus were spread by a chain letter[1] that also claimed that Bulger's fingers were cut off using scissors; this is also untrue).
Before they left him, the boys laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, in hopes that a passing train would hit him and make his death appear to be an accident. Two days later, Bulger's body was discovered; a forensic pathologist later testified that he had died before his body was run over by an oncoming train which sliced through him.
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 was found on Bulger's body. Both had blood on their shoes; blood on Venables's shoe was matched to that of Bulger through DNA tests.
The two boys were charged with Bulger's murder on 22 February 1993, and were the youngest people to be charged with murder in England and Wales during the 20th century.
The trial
In the initial aftermath of their arrest, and throughout the media accounts of their trial, the boys were referred to simply as 'Child A' (Thompson) and 'Child B' (Venables). At the close of the trial, the judge ruled that their names should be released (probably because of the widely publicised nature of the murder and the public reaction to it), and they were identified by name in the immediate aftermath of their convictions, along with lengthy descriptions of their lives and backgrounds. Public shock at the murder was compounded by the release, after the trial was over, of mug shots taken during initial questioning by police. The pictures showed a pair of frightened children, and many found it hard to believe such a crime had been perpetrated by two people so young.
Five hundred angry 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 had to assume new identities following a series of death threats from vigilantes.
The full trial took place at Preston Crown Court, and 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 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 of them when their families attended the trial. News stories frequently reported on the demeanour of the defendants, since they were in full view of reporters. (These aspects of the trial were later criticised by the European Court of Human Rights, who ruled that they had not received a fair trial.)
The boys, who themselves did not testify in their own defence, were found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment at a young offenders' institution at Her Majesty's Pleasure. The trial judge, Mr Justice Morland, set their minimum period of incarceration to eight years. This was increased on appeal to 10 years by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Taylor of Gosforth. Later it was increased to 15 years by the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, on the grounds that he was "acting in the public interest". This decision 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 while in detention, effectively restoring the original trial judge's eight-year recommended minimum.
Appeal and release
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.
The European Court case led to the new Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, reviewing the minimum sentence imposed. 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 of the case, the parole board ruled the boys were no longer a threat to public safety and could now 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. They were given new identities and moved to secret residence locations under a "witness protection"-style action. They will live out their lives on a 'life licence', which allows for their immediate re-incarceration (for an unlimited period of time) if they break the terms of their release: that is, if they are seen to be a danger to the public.
Subsequent controversies
The Manchester Evening News provoked controversy by naming the secure institutions in which the pair were housed, 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 contempt of court, and fined £30,000 as well as being ordered to pay costs of £120,000.
The injunction against the press reporting on the boys' whereabouts applies only in England and Wales, and newspapers in Scotland and other countries can legally publish such information. With easy cross-border communications by virtue of the internet, many expected their identities and whereabouts to quickly become public knowledge. Indeed, in June 2001, Venables's mother was quoted by the News of the World as saying that she expected her son to be 'dead within four weeks of release'. Her lawyers lodged a formal complaint with the Press Complaints Commission saying that Mrs Venables had said no such thing. By that time, however, the phrase had been widely re-reported.
No publication of 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 in any way.
More than five years after their release, stories and rumours about Venables and Thompson continue to circulate. In January 2006, The Sunday Mirror newspaper reported that Robert Thompson had fathered a child with a girlfriend who remained unaware of his past.[2] The paper also 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, however, it was reported in The Sun newspaper that Thompson was in a "settled relationship" with a gay male partner who was made fully aware of his conviction, and that he had been living with the man at a "secret address" in North West England for "several months" [3].
In May 2006 it was widely rumoured that a man called Sean Walsh, who had been sentenced to 15 years for attempting to kill his pregnant girlfriend and her three year old daughter, was Robert Thompson living 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 (approximately 20 miles from Liverpool) from the age of 15. At one point, Walsh claimed to be Thompson but the authorities dismissed this.[4][5][6]
In June 2006, a widely circulated e-mail message claimed that Dante Arthurs, a man accused of murdering a child in Perth, Western Australia, was in fact one of James Bulger's killers living under a new identity. Again, this was revealed to be untrue.[7] This claim has also been denied by authorities (they would very unlikely to have been granted visas to live in Australia, due to their criminal history).
In April 2007, it was reported that the Home Office has spent £13,000 on an injunction preventing a non-UK magazine from revealing the new identities of the James Bulger killers.[8] In September 2007, it was rumoured that Robert Thompson was living under the first name "James" in Carshalton, Surrey, with his girlfriend and their young child. An older woman was also listed at the same address. This older woman's maiden name was remarkably similar to the maiden name of Thompson's mother, although some have dismissed this as mere coincidence.
A May 27 2007 article in The People claimed that Jon Venables had become a born again Christian. The 24 year old, now living with a new identity, reportedly attends Sunday night service, midweek prayer group and a separate Bible class. Venables has asked a ministerial team to pray for him and have his sins forgiven by God.[9] Britain's Daily Mail has reported that Venables is getting married to a girlfriend who has no idea of his criminal history. He has been advised not to say anything to her about the Bulger murder.[10]
In June 2007, a computer game based on the TV series Law & Order, entitled 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 famous CCTV frame of Bulger being led away by his killers, Venables and Thompson. The scene in the game involves a CGI 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'.[2]
On December 16 2007, The People newspaper claimed that Jon Venables was stabbed during a fight after punching another man who was flirting with his girlfriend. Venables was rushed to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. This rumour has yet to be confirmed. [11]
Law & Order
Episode "Killerz" was based on the James Bulger case.
See also
References
- ^ Urban Legends Reference Pages: Murder of Jamie Bulger
- ^ Boyer, Brandon (2007-06-21). "Legacy Apologises For Law And Order Crime Photo". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
- The Guardian (1993-2002) Special Report: The James Bulger Case, retrieved 23 April 2005.
- BBC News (24 June 2001) Bulger killers 'face danger', retrieved 23 April 2005.
- BBC News (22 June 2001) Bulger statement in full, retrieved 23 April 2005.
- ABC News (28 June 2006) Speculation that accused child rapist and murderer 'Dante Arthurs' may be Robert Thompson's assumed identity, retrieved 29 June 2006.
- Sky News (8 April 2007) Injunction On Killers' IDs, retrieved 8 April 2007.
