Twenty-five years on, Im still prone to hot tears at the memory of it all and I do question the trial. He has had Christmas presents. The Crown Prosecution Service released a statement in January confirming Venables had been charged. 'We have never really been apart,' Mrs Venables said. His body was found two days later on a railway line. Denise Fergus is the same age as me, a fact I only registered when I met her for the first time two weeks ago. He would throw things at other children, cut himself deliberately with scissors and stick paper all over his face. One time they sagged off with Robert's younger brother, which went disastrously wrong. The breaking point came when Jon was suspended from Broad Square after attempting to choke a classmate with a twelve-inch wooden ruler. The Venables decided to place her with their eldest son, in a school for children with special needs. Then there were the separated parents, the poverty, the truanting, the videos. Robert would give Jon presents of stolen objects: trolls, of course, toy terrapins, sweets. Reporters from around the world ended up in the drab streets of Walton, cadging interviews off any 10-year-old boys hanging around in the streets. The four who drove Suzanne to Romiley - Jean Powell (now Jean Gillespie), Bernadette McNeilly, Glyn Powell, and Anthony Dudson - were all found guilty of murder. Look at mine. What doing well means is anybodys guess. Read about our approach to external linking. A maudlin ballad about Liverpool was playing in the back- ground and she was cooking the dish known as Scouse. ', Mrs Thompson had no illusions about her son: 'He's a little liar, he's devious, he's a scally, he robs, he plays truant.' A parole board ruled that Thompson and Venables were no longer a threat. They were intent on killing. That's the thing that upsets me because obviously, where I was standing poor little James must have been not far . He is far from it. 'I don't know,' he replied. "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. Jon continued to attend Broad Square, where children of the neighborhood openly mocked and poked fun at his siblings, calling them backward. Jon was also an easy target due to a squint in his eye. Dudson was given a minimum term of 18 years. . Jon Venables is demonstrably no such thing. Shame? Teachers hold placards as they shout slogans while taking part in a protest organised in Manchester as part of a national strike day. They pair was ordered to be detained at her majesty's pleasure - meaning indefinitely - but in 2001, a six-month review by the parole board found they were no longer a threat to public safety and they were released on life licence after serving just eight years. Such a childish voice. By then, Robert and Jon had abducted James Bulger from the Strand and attempted to drown him in the nearby canal. She visited regularly and they would hold family anniversaries in the, place where he was held. 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 investigating police officer said: 'You could look into the eyes of Robert and knew you were looking at evil.' The left will make play of social deprivation, unemployment, bad housing and general inner-city rot. He was fearful of the other boy. WALTON, where they both lived, is, in the jargon of planning, an inner-city urban priority area; neither the best nor the worst the city has to offer. "I think about little James and what he must have gone through, how they must feel. . Just having a bit of shade!! The boys lived off chips. 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. I have lost my son as well. I feel so sorry for them. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. He says 'I know, Mum'. rk ye. I do believe that she feels guilty deep down for her own part in what happened., Despite the risks of discovery, the relationship is said to have contin- ued to thrive following Thompsons. Few will ever forget the chilling footage of two 10-year-old boys holding a toddler's hand as they led him to his death. The experience gave Jon renewed confidence, and the second time they sagged off together he suggested it. School had no hold on him - there was no corporal punishment or other form of penalty that touched him. On November 24, 1993, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables became the youngest persons to be convicted of murder in Britain in almost 250 years, when the pair, both eleven, was found guilty of the abduction and murder of two-year-old James Patrick Bulger. as he was known in court - Jon Venables. Once Robert shared with him a tin of Roses chocolates which he had poured surreptitiously into his coat pocket. It was their sons picked up by detectives. 'I think about little James and what he must have gone through, how they must feel. He is one of those children that if you told him to put his hand in the fire, he would. Thompson and Venables, now both 27 years old, are among only four individuals in the UK whose crimes are so notorious that they have been given lifelong anonymity. I just heard an almighty screech. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. Will you tell his mum I'm sorry?". . Ann Thompson and Susan and Neil Venables didn't need to imagine. Robert passed this down the line bullying his eight-year-old brother into playing truant. DAVID James Smith, who visited Mrs Thompson at one of her secret homes, reveals that it was a sad existence. She said an educational psychologist had diagnosed hyperactivity in her son, who was bullied at his previous school. Mrs Venables said: 'I think it was because the class group was too big for them to go in . A day later she would face much worse. Robert had asked once before but Jon, who had rarely truanted in his previous school, was scared and said no. Hes your son., Unhappily, it was during this critical time that Ann became pregnant with her seventh child, the product of another failed relationship. They had much in common. I got on with my job, but months later the impact of that trial had sunk in and a difficult, tearful, confusing year followed for me. "Throughout the conduct of the case there have been a number of issues that have been swept under the carpet. But his comment sparked anger from viewers. Mrs Venables has also said that she felt heartbreak for James and his parents and shame for her son. 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. On one occasion, he said, Robert ran off down the street laughing, "You can't catch me". 'I didn't know it would be like this,' Mr Venables said with hindsight. I just burst into tears because you just knew what that meanther heart was broken. "Just TV programmes and little things remind me of the good times we had together . By now, Robert had also stepped comfortably into the role of the aggressor, and, following in the footsteps of his elder brothers, began tormenting his eight-year-old brother on a daily basis. 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 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?". Ann and Bobby fought regularly in front of the children, with virtually all of the fights leading to physical violence. The best photos of birds and other wildlife from around the world. 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. But Robert was stuck in Walton with his older brothers and the baby. David James Smith, who wrote a book about the Bulger case, The Sleep Of Reason, and stayed in touch with Ann Thompson afterwards. The details of Jamess death were sickening. When shop keepers asked what they were doing they would pretend they were waiting for their mum. It was when Jon turned seven that Susan and the children had relocated to Norris Green, one of Liverpools larger, more reputable areas. Some neighbours claim they saw the boy snaring birds into traps in the back yard of his home, while one local youth claimed he saw the boy pull the heads off live baby pigeons. Constantly restless, his workbooks were empty, and he would often be denied recess because he was so far behind. The documentary last night featured interviews with those involved in the 1993 trial, including James dad Ralph Bulger, Jon Venables solicitor Laurence Lee and detective sergeant Phil Roberts, who interviewed Robert Thompson. Money, or his family's lack of it, preyed on his mind. I know how I feel as a mother. One police officer described how Jon Venables was so small, his legs were swinging in the air as he sat in the custody office. Lady Penelope was his favourite character because she was rich, followed by Brains with the glasses. The living versions on the floor of the court looked equally wrinkled and austere. INSIDE the court sat the two boys, dwarfed by the weight and majesty of the place. In some families this was the third generation to be unemployed. The couple was financially strained from the start, but Ann did what she could to make it work. But he is not a murderer. His parents say he is 'broken-hearted'. Three years ago, after his mother walloped him, he went to social services and asked them to put him in care. Robert's feelings towards his half-brother also appear to have been ambivalent - he told police he would not have murdered James Bulger because 'if I wanted to kill a baby, I'd kill my own, wouldn't I?'. ", Children accused of a crime are usually granted anonymity, but at the end of the trial the judge allowed both to be named, "because the public interest overrode the interest of the defendants.". The statement said: "The man formerly known as Jon Venables has been charged with offences relating to indecent images of children and will appear in the Crown Court. 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. It set the tone for the years ahead in which there was to be no respite from the hatred. 'I thought he was all right,' said Boy B, as he was known in court - Jon Venables. 'In my opinion he was victimised. . . Neighbors later reported that it wasnt uncommon for Robert to be seen wandering the streets of Walton after midnight, since he was always running off at night. TWO BOYS. "On the other hand, you are looking at him and you are saying 'Well, I know why - because he is so weak'. 'I even went up to the railway line because I knew the other boy had a den up there and was on the railway nearly all the time.'. Extraordinarily, she even shouted up to the railway tracks at Walton where she knew Robert had a den. At the trialnine months laterI would learn that Robert Thompson had been among those people. 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 hardliners in the police have a simpler explanation. Counsel for the prosecution, Richard Henriques QC, made it clear all three elements needed to be proved for a murder conviction. He had a Game Boy console and hankered after a Sega machine, and when they played truant he would head straight for the computer game corner of Tandy's or Dixons. "The age of criminal responsibility in this country is 10 that's too low. Thompson was inscrutable in the dock as we heard his voice for the first time. 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. The citys worst instincts produced the wrongful hounding of a family whose sons people decided were responsible. They and Ann Thompson, who has six other. She claimed, however, that she was completely unaware of Jons erratic behaviors at school, had never seen any evidence to support them (such as cuts on his arms or holes in his socks), and dismissed the possibility that many of the occurrences cited by the teacher had ever taken place. She was prone to hysteria and hailed from a 'strict and disciplined' background. He would steal objects that he neither needed nor wanted, then chuck them away in the street. Behind them eyes bore into them - from everyone on all sides, journalists, their parents, members of the public, and of course, theBulgerfamily. Denise Bulger believes her son's murderers - men now - should be in prison for ever. In the first press conference she gave the day after her son was taken, this 25-year-old woman struck me as a girl, a desperate, grief stricken girl whose tired swollen eyes told their own story. Still, despite being clearly intimidated by him, Roberts brother appeared to share a strangely intimate bond with him. The most agonising thing about the whole case was that so many people had stopped them and questioned them. The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. They were drawn to one another quickly. Express. So much happened whilst I was there involving Jon. Striking members of the National Education Union (NEU) South East Region at a rally in Chichester, West Sussex, in a long-running dispute over pay, Members of the Welsh Guards replace their bearskin headress after giving three cheers during a St David's Day visit to the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards at Combermere Barracks in Windsor, Berkshire, Princess of Wales and Prince William take part in a spin class uring a visit to Aberavon Leisure and Fitness Center to meet local communities and hear about how sport and exercise can support mental health and wellbeing, in Port Talbot, Wales, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen during a press conference at the Guildhall in Windsor, Berkshire, following the announcement that they have struck a deal over the Northern Ireland Protocol, Homes sit close to the cliff edge at Hemsby in Norfolk, where the beach has been closed off because of significant erosion and the risk that homes could fall into the sea, Members of the Russian Democratic Society, a group of Russian citizens living in the UK, stage a protest outside the Russian embassy in London, to mark the one year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces enter 10 Downing Street, in London, after the National one minutes silence to mark one year since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech at the head office of the Co-Operative Group in Manchester, unveiling plans for a mission-led Labour government, with five national missions setting out his objectives for a Labour government if the party gains power at the next general election, Ukrainian soldiers pose with a Ukrainian flag next to a military vehicle at Bovington Camp in Dorset, Stunning colours before sunrise as people walk their dogs on Tynemouth Longsands beach in Tynemouth on the North east coast, Visitors observe Dippy the Diplodocus at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry, where the museum will be hosting the 26-metre long replica skeleton for the next three years, Flowers, and ribbons on a bridge over the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, where police recovered a body on Sunday, which was found by members of the public close to where Nicola Bulley disappeared on January 27, Protesters clash at a refugees welcome rally in Liverpool city centre, A Porsche 911 car is damaged by a fallen tree in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, as a result of storm Otto. His mind was too restless to take up other hobbies for long. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Parents of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson talk about their sons, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. His mother was not so keen on the idea - they cost pounds 35 each. Money was always a struggle, and she got through the first years drinking in Higson's Top House off St Mary's Lane. The family was already exhaustingly overextended, and Robert, being the fifth edition, was quick to pick up on the coping mechanisms needed to survive in a life of unremitting chaos and enmity. Jon was slim in build and taller than Robert, just over five feet. ", Her husband, Neil, said: "If you had a league table of children, you would put him at the bottom of the list for anything like this.". Join Facebook to connect with Susan Venables and others you may know. On Sundays he used to watch Thunderbirds. She was a woman as large in personality and physique as the burdens she carried. what is the bite force of a baboon. They deal with drugs, they deal with everything. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter', Why half of India's urban women stay at home. Susan opted to remove him from the school then, and some months later, she reenrolled him in St. Marys in Walton. "You look at him and you say to yourself, 'How could you be involved in anything like this?'" Jon Venables arrived at Walton St. Marys Church of England School a disrupted and attention-seeking boy, whose behavior was so bizarre at times that one of his teachers considered him to be emotionally unstable. It is just heartbreaking.". Mr Venables said that the two boys had played truant together four times before, adding that he caught them twice. By now the Venables were reunited as a result of the court case. In any case, the couple drifted together, and in 1983, just fifteen months succeeding Jons birth, Susan gave birth to their third child, a daughter. In return, Jon would let Robert ride his bicycle, and from time to time he would suggest naughty deeds himself. Not that he had any need to borrow his dad's. For a start, there were only three children, of whom Jon was the middle. The Americans fed 1 1/2 minutes of the Jamie Bulger story into a 22-minute bulletin of national and international news. and things like that is that he was frightened. Just seeing the size of them that first time, the childish figures they naturally were, caught my breath. Venables and Thompson were seen on CCTV calmly leading the toddler out of the shopping centre by his hand. Online Marketing For Your Business Once he stole decorating borders from a DIY shop which he discarded at regular intervals to mark his way home. The bleached houses were peppered with burglar alarms, the shabby ones did not look worth the trouble. Both of them struggled at school and had been lumped into the year below their age. 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. A sudden pause in the tapes and one of the officers appeared in person to describe how he asked Neil and Susan Venables to leave the room because he thought Jon wanted to tell him something. Last November he was arrested and recalled to jail on suspicion of possession of images of child sex abuse. . Hope. Their kids have got everything. I'm warning yer,' she would say. Verdict day came. Her family were dignified throughout, but on that day one of theBulgerfamily supporters allowed themselvesa loud 'YES' as the verdicts came in. When he played truant he was scared she would come and find him. "It was very dark and I shouted down, shouted his name. In the business world, too many people think it's all about being hard, tough, ambitious, or having grit. Ms Truss has written a 4,000-word essay in todays Sunday Telegraph in which she stood by her plans to boost economic growth during her short tenure in No 10, Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker fails to stop team-mate Joel Matip (not pictured) from scoring an own goal during the Premier League match at Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, A member of the public lines the road into St Michaels on Wyre, Lancashire, with missing posters of Nicola Bulley, 45, as police continue their search for the missing woman who was last seen on the morning of Friday January 27, when she was spotted walking her dog on a footpath by the nearby River Wyre, Not your usual prisoner! The days James was abducted, February 12 1993, I was a young reporter in my home city of Liverpool. Ultimately, however, the couples indifferences led to separation, and they were eventually divorced in 1986. It seems likely that he was bullied. sp. She remained very frightened and felt that she and her son were the most hated people in the country. Could they have planned to do it in advance? Robert was number five of seven. Members of the Up Helly Aa 'Jarl Squad' parade through the streets in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon using a camera during her visit to BBC Studioworks in Glasgow, Passersby chat with the police as they arrive to see King Charles III and the Princess Royal attend a church service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk, People at a vigil at Lurgan Park in Lurgan, Co Armagh in memory of murder victim Natalie McNally and opposing violence against women, Firefighters use hoses to dampen down at the scene of a fire at St Marks Church in Hamilton Terrace, St Johns Wood, London, which has been destroyed by the blaze which began in the early hours of the morning, Huskies pull their musher during a training run before this weekends annual Aviemore Sled Dog Rally, in Feshiebridge, A knitted topper celebrating Burns Night placed on a post box in Alloway, Ayrshire, Deer graze during sunrise at Ashton Court Estate, Bristol, where clear misty skies and a cold morning brings frost across parts of the south west UK, Ambulance workers on the picket line outside the Donnington Ambulance Hub, at Donnington, near Telford, Shropshire. Jon's first year after he was moved was relatively successful. He was always getting prizes for maths at school. Sorry, we are unable to accept comments about this article at the moment. He would go to bed. Channel 5 is set to air a new two-part documentary that tells the definitive story of . 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. wo. It was the kind of family neighbours compare themselves against and then feel better. Thompson got better opportunities there than if hed been walking the streets in Walton, says the author. Not their punishmentand exclusion from society for the rest of their childhood. . [3] [4] Thompson and Venables led Bulger away . In 2010, Meggie Atkinson, then children's commissioner for England, called for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 12 in light of the trial. They occasionally exchanged furtive glances. His mother, Anne Marie Thompson, who is 39, got the house from the local housing trust after her husband, Robert, ran off with a woman from Stockport five years ago. The case is doomed to be picked over by every faction within the caring professionals and politics. I thought he was all right, Jon said of Robert during his police interviews. "The report of the Prison Service into an incident at Red Bank secure unit has not been published. The parents of James Bulgers killers have also come to learn that the consequences of that terrible day will stay with them for ever too. 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. It was on his way back to the interview room when Venables finally admitted it: "We did it. One woman asked how James had injured his forehead. But viewers were shocked when experts "defended" the 10-year-old murderers saying they made "an awful mistake". Eventually, Bobby walked out on his family, but not before beating his wife one final time. But after a year they let Ian out again. Constantly fighting and battering one another, and possibly, too, being hit by their emotionally drained mother, the Thompson brothers often looked scruffy, and, on more than one occasion, were seen bearing bruises and bite marks. After a while the 10-year-olds began to charge - a tenner an interview. During the Bulger investigation, police checked the details of 50 videos Mr Venables had hired in recent months. 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. Robert said 'If you tell anybody I'll get my big brother to batter you up'. Not really?. Naturaleza. Shed never been back but she clearly missed Liverpool and had tried to recreate the city in her new home, he recalls. On countless occasions, Bobby battered his wife, once causing her to miscarry, and his temper didnt stop at his wife. I remember watching her then on TV, her sobbing plea for information and thinking how much guts it must have taken to get up that day and face a roomful of journalists and photographers. Other parents came in to complain about attention seeking. "All he said when we've said 'Why didn't you run away?' Both had parents who had separated. Thompson & Venebales. Look at mine. Born on August 13th, 1982, Jon was the middle child of Neil and Susan Venables. everyone blamed Thompson and. A pathologist later said that there were so many injuries - 42 in total - that not one could be isolated as causing the little boy's fatal wound. There is, like, a little paint factory. 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 pair was tried for the abduction and murder of James as adults owing to the fact they were over 10, which is legally deemed to be the age of criminal responsibility. He did like to be liked, and loved to have friends, and he has got involved with the wrong person.". The most startling moment of the trial came when, in lieu of giving evidence in person, the boys' taped interviews with police - recorded just after their arrest - were played in court. As his killers began their sentences, such was the revulsion that it was already clear their families could not. She said that Jon was always "loving, caring, thoughtful and considerate . "My heart really goes out to them. The attitude when you live where we live is that you have to be tough or else you dont survive, she said. He would often have to stay in class at break times to catch up. Tweet. His mother cared about him. 'It's always our family that gets the blame,' Robert said to police after he was arrested for James's murder. "An awful mistake for 10 year olds is shoplifting not murdering a 2 year old FFS," another angry viewer tweeted. But that is the common lot of thousands of 10-year-olds who have not turned into murderers. Since the murder Robert has been in a state of post-traumatic shock, hounded by nightmares and flashbacks from the railway tracks. Venables was caught with 1,170 indecent photos of children on his laptop, the Old Bailey was told. Big Bobby, like Anns father, was a violent alcoholic, who was easily crossed. After they became friends he initiated Jon into the delights of climbing into people's back gardens and the consequent thrill of being chased out by the owners. Their. He was repulsed because he found Robert's disdain for authority scary. He said that on the day James was killed, when he went to the school in the afternoon to collect Jon he was told his son was missing. Architect Shahed Saleem in the Ramadan Pavilion 2023 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. When Robert was asked what his hobby was he did not say trolls but 'skipping school'. He had an elder brother, aged 13, and a nine-year-old sister. They hid his body under bricks so that the first train to come along cut his body in two, but he was already dead before this happened. At Preston Crown Court Thompsons mother Ann and Venables parents Neil and Sue sat side by side. Join Facebook to connect with Susan Venables and others you may know. Another added: "An awful mistake??!! I just think of James and his Dad and about all that fun with his little boy, like I had with Jon.". 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. Grey Heron. Forlorn hope, though. The documentary on the James Bulger murder case sparked anger after viewers criticised the Channel 4 show for "sympathising" with the toddler's killers. He stayed away from school so often the local police called him a professional truant. 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. release. In the last few years she stopped drinking in the Top House and tried to keep things together.