Murder of James Bulger
Encyclopedia
James Patrick Bulger was a boy from Kirkby
, England
, who was murdered on 12 February 1993, when aged two. He was abducted
, torture
d and murder
ed by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson (born 23 August 1982) and Jon Venables (born 13 August 1982).
Bulger disappeared from the New Strand Shopping Centre
in Bootle
, near Liverpool
, while accompanying his mother. His mutilated body was found on a railway line two-and-a-half miles away in Walton, two days after his murder. Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with Bulger's abduction and murder.
The pair were found guilty on 24 November 1993, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history. They were sentenced to custody until they reached adulthood, initially until the age of 18, and were released on a lifelong licence in June 2001. The case has prompted widespread debate on the issue of how to handle young offenders when they are sentenced or released from custody.
evidence from the New Strand Shopping Centre
in Bootle
taken on 12 February 1993 showed Thompson and Venables casually observing children, apparently selecting a target. The boys were playing truant
from school, which they did regularly. Throughout the day, Thompson and Venables were seen stealing various items including sweets, a troll doll
, some batteries and a can of blue paint, some of which were later found at the murder scene. It was later revealed by one of the boys that they were planning to find a child to abduct, lead him to the busy road alongside the mall, and push him into the path of oncoming traffic.
That same afternoon, James Bulger (often called "Jamie" by the press, although never by his family), from nearby Kirkby, went with his mother Denise to the New Strand Shopping Centre. While inside the A.R. Tym's butcher shop at around 3:40 pm, Denise, who had been momentarily distracted, realised that her son had disappeared. He had been wandering by the open door of the shop while she placed an order, and was spotted by Thompson and Venables. They approached him and spoke to him, before taking him by the hand and leading him out of the precinct. This moment was captured on a CCTV camera recording timestamped at 15:42.
The boys took Bulger on a meandering adj=on 2.5 walk across Liverpool to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal
where he was dropped on his head and suffered injuries to his face. The boys joked about pushing Bulger into the canal. During the walk across Liverpool, the boys were seen by 38 people. Bulger had a bump on his forehead and was crying, but most bystanders did nothing to intervene, assuming that he was a younger brother. Two people challenged the older boys, but they claimed that Bulger was a younger brother or that he was lost and they were taking him to the local police station. At one point, the boys took Bulger into a pet shop, from which they were ejected. Eventually the boys arrived in the village of Walton, and with Walton Lane police station across the road facing them, they hesitated and led Bulger up a steep bank to a railway line near the disused Walton & Anfield railway station
, close to Anfield Cemetery
, where they began torturing him.
At the trial it was established that at this location, one of the boys threw blue Humbrol
modelling paint, which they had shoplifted earlier, into Bulger's left eye. They kicked and stamped on him, and threw bricks and stones at him. Batteries were placed in Bulger's mouth. Police believed some batteries may have been inserted into his anus, although none were found there. Finally, a 22 pounds (10 kg) iron bar, described in court as a railway fishplate
, was dropped on him. Bulger suffered ten skull fracture
s as a result of the iron bar striking his head. Dr. Alan Williams, the case's pathologist, stated that Bulger suffered so many injuries — 42 in total — that none could be isolated as the fatal blow.
Police suspected that there was a sexual element to the crime, since Bulger's shoes, stockings, trousers and underpants had been removed. The pathologist's report read out in court stated that Bulger's foreskin
had been forcibly retracted
. When questioned about this aspect of the attack by detectives and the child psychiatrist, Dr. Eileen Vizard, Thompson and Venables were reluctant to give details; they also vehemently denied inserting some of the batteries into Bulger's anus. At his eventual parole, Venables' psychiatrist until he was aged 21, Dr. Susan Bailey, reported that "visiting and revisiting the issue with Jon as a child, and now as an adolescent, he gives no account of any sexual element to the offence."
Before they left him, the boys laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, in the hope that a train would hit him and make his death appear to be an accident. After Bulger's killers left the scene, his body was cut in half by a train. Bulger's severed body was discovered two days later, on 14 February. A forensic pathologist
testified that he had died before he was struck by the train.
The police quickly found low-resolution video images of Bulger's abduction from the New Strand Shopping Centre by two unidentified boys. As the circumstances surrounding the death became clear, tabloid newspapers denounced the people who had seen Bulger but had not intervened to aid Bulger as he was being taken through the city, as the "Liverpool 38". The railway embankment upon which his body had been discovered was flooded with hundreds of bunches of flowers.
The crime created great anger in Liverpool and throughout the country. The family of one boy who was detained for questioning, but subsequently released, had to flee the city. The breakthrough came when a woman, on seeing slightly enhanced images of the two boys on national television, recognised Venables, who, she knew, had played truant with Thompson that day. She contacted police and the boys were arrested.
The fact that the suspects were so young came as a shock to investigating officers, headed by Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby, of Merseyside Police
. Early press reports and police statements had referred to Bulger being seen with "two youths" (suggesting that the killers were teenagers), the ages of the boys being difficult to ascertain from the images captured by CCTV.
Forensic tests confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as found on Bulger's body. Both had blood on their shoes; the blood on Thompson's shoe was matched to Bulger's through DNA
tests. A pattern of bruising on Bulger's right cheek matched the features of the upper part of a shoe worn by Thompson; a paint mark in the toecap of one of Venables' shoes indicated he must have used "some force" when he kicked Bulger.
The boys were charged with Bulger's murder on 20 February 1993, and appeared at South Sefton Youth Court on 22 February 1993, when they were remanded in custody to await trial. 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). While awaiting trial, they were held in the secure units where they would eventually be sentenced to be detained indefinitely
.
The full trial opened at Preston Crown Court
on 1 November 1993, conducted as an adult trial
with the accused in the dock away from their parents, and the judge and court officials in legal regalia. The boys denied the charges of murder, abduction and attempted abduction brought against them. The attempted abduction charge related to an incident at the New Strand Shopping Centre
earlier on 12 February 1993, the day of Bulger's death. Thompson and Venables had attempted to lead away another two-year-old boy, but had been prevented by the boy's mother. 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 later criticised by the European Court of Human Rights
, which ruled in 1999 that they had not received a fair trial by being tried in public in an adult court.
At the trial, the lead prosecution counsel
Richard Henriques QC
successfully rebutted the principle of doli incapax
, which presumes that young children cannot be held legally responsible for their actions. The child psychiatrist Dr. Eileen Vizard, who interviewed Thompson before the trial, was asked in court whether he would know the difference between right and wrong, that it was wrong to take a young child away from its mother, and that it was wrong to cause injury to a child. Vizard replied, "If the issue is on the balance of probabilities, I think I can answer with certainty". Vizard also said that Thompson was suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder after the attack on Bulger. Dr. Susan Bailey, the Home Office
forensic psychiatrist
who interviewed Venables, said unequivocally that he knew the difference between right and wrong.
Thompson and Venables did not speak during the trial, and the case against them was based to a large extent on the more than 20 hours of tape-recorded police interviews with the boys, which were played back in court. 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. Venables would later describe how Bulger seemed to "like" him, holding his hand and allowing him to pick him up on the meandering journey to the scene of his eventual death.
The prosecution admitted a number of exhibits during the trial, including a box of 27 bricks, a blood-stained stone, Bulger's underpants, and the rusty iron bar described as a railway fishplate. The pathologist spent 33 minutes outlining the injuries sustained by Bulger; many of those to his legs had been inflicted after he was stripped from the waist down. Brain damage
was extensive and included a haemorrhage.
The two boys, by then aged 11, were found guilty of Bulger's murder at the Preston court on 24 November 1993, becoming the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century. The judge, Mr. Justice Morland, told Thompson and Venables that they had committed a crime of "unparalleled evil and barbarity... In my judgment, your conduct was both cunning and very wicked." Morland 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", recommending a minimum term of eight years.
At the close of the trial, the judge ruled their names should be released (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 shot
s taken during questioning by police. Sir David Omand
would later criticise this decision and outline the difficulties created by it in his 2010 review of the probation service's handling of the case.
, 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 at the age of 20.
The editors of The Sun newspaper handed a petition bearing nearly 280,000 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 July 1994 Howard announced that the boys would be kept in custody for a minimum of fifteen years, meaning that they would not be considered for release until February 2008, by which time they would be 25 years of age.
Lord Donaldson
criticised Howard's intervention, describing the increased tariff as "institutionalised vengeance ... [by] a politician playing to the gallery". The increased minimum term was overturned in 1997 by the House of Lords
, who ruled that it was "unlawful" for the Home Secretary to decide on minimum sentences for young offenders. The High Court
and European Court of Human Rights
have since ruled that, though the parliament may set minimum and maximum terms for individual categories of crime, it is the responsibility of the trial judge, with the benefit of all the evidence and argument from both prosecution and defence counsel, to determine the minimum term in individual criminal cases.
The case led to public anguish, and concern at moral decay in Britain. Tony Blair
, then the Shadow Home Secretary
, gave a speech in Wellingborough
during which he said: "We hear of crimes so horrific they provoke anger and disbelief in equal proportions... These are the ugly manifestations of a society that is becoming unworthy of that name." Prime Minister
John Major
said that "society needs to condemn a little more, and understand a little less". The trial judge Mr. Justice Morland stated that exposure to violent videos might have encouraged the actions of Thompson and Venables, but this was disputed by David Maclean
, the Minister of State at the Home Office at the time, who pointed out that police had found no evidence linking the case with "video nasties
". Some UK tabloid newspapers claimed that the attack on James Bulger was inspired by the film Child's Play 3
, and campaigned for the rules on "video nasties" to be tightened. Inspector Ray Simpson of Merseyside Police
commented: "If you are going to link this murder to a film, you might as well link it to The Railway Children
". The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
clarified the rules on the availability of certain types of video material to children.
, which housed 14 young offenders and was divided into three wings, including one for girls. Venables was detained in Vardy House, a small eight-bedded unit at Red Bank secure unit in St. Helens
on Merseyside — the same facility where, 25 years prior, Mary Bell
had been held for half of her 12-year sentence. These locations were not publicly known until after the boys' release.
Details of the boys' lives were recorded twice daily on running sheets and signed by the member of staff who had written them. The records were stored at the units and copied to officials in Whitehall
. The boys were taught to lie about their real names and to conceal the crime they had committed which resulted in them being in the units. Venables' parents regularly visited their son at Red Bank, just as Thompson's mother did — every three days — at Barton Moss.
The boys received education and rehabilitation; despite initial problems, Venables was said to have eventually made good progress at Red Bank, resulting in him being kept there for the full eight years, despite the facility only being a short-stay remand unit. Thompson was said, by a social worker who observed him for his eight years at Barton Moss, to be well-behaved and intelligent, and to have coped well with his situation, adjusting to life in the secure unit quickly, but never showing any remorse or interest in his crime. By the age of 14, Thompson was taken on outings to the theatre, the Lake District
, and shopping centres, where he could spend some of the £60-per-month allowance he received. At the age of 16, he acquired a girlfriend, a fellow inmate who served time in the unit for one year. Venables was taken on trips to Wales
, swimming in Wigan
, and once to watch a Manchester United football match at Old Trafford
. Both boys, however, were reported to suffer posttraumatic stress disorder, and Venables in particular told of experiencing nightmares and flashbacks to the murder.
that the boys' trial had not been impartial, since they were too young to follow proceedings and understand an adult court. The European court dismissed their claim that the trial was inhuman and degrading treatment, but upheld their claim they were denied a fair hearing
by the nature of the court proceedings. The European Court also held that Michael Howard's intervention had led to a "highly charged atmosphere", which resulted in an unfair judgment. 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".
In September 1999, Bulger's parents applied to the European Court of Human Rights, but failed to persuade the court that a victim of a crime has the right to be involved in determining the sentence of the perpetrator.
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 offender 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 February of that year. The Home Secretary David Blunkett
approved the decision, and they were released a few weeks later on a lifelong licence after serving eight years. Both men were given new identities and moved to secret locations under a "witness protection
"-style action. This was supported by the fabrication of passports, national insurance numbers, qualification certificates and medical records. Blunkett added his own conditions to their licence and insisted on being sent daily updates on the men's actions.
The terms of their release include the following: they are not allowed to contact each other or Bulger's family; they are prohibited from visiting the Merseyside
region; curfews may be imposed on them and they must report to probation officers. Breach of those rules would make them liable to be returned to prison. If they were deemed to be a risk to the public, they would be returned to prison.
An injunction
was imposed on the media after the trial, preventing the publication of details about the boys. The worldwide injunction was kept in force following their release on parole, so their new identities and locations could not be published. Blunkett stated in 2001: "The injunction was granted because there was a real and strong possibility that their lives would be at risk if their identities became known".
The Guardian
revealed that Venables and Thompson had passed A-levels
during their sentences. The paper also told how the Bulger family's lawyers had consulted psychiatric experts in order to present the parole panel with a report which suggested that Thompson is an undiagnosed psychopath
, citing his lack of remorse during his trial and arrest. The report was ultimately dismissed. However, his lack of remorse at the time, in stark contrast to Venables, led to considerable scrutiny from the parole panel. Upon release, both Thompson and Venables had lost all trace of their Liverpool accents
. In a psychiatric report prepared in 2000 prior to Venables' release, he was described as posing a "trivial" risk to the public and unlikely to reoffend. The chances of his successful rehabilitation were described as "very high".
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.
No significant publication or vigilante action against Thompson or Venables has occurred. Despite this, Bulger's mother, Denise, told how in 2004 she received a tip-off from an anonymous source that helped her locate Thompson. Upon seeing him, she was "paralysed with hatred" and was unable to confront him.
In April 2007, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act
confirmed that the Home Office
had spent £13,000 on an injunction to prevent a foreign magazine from revealing the new identities of Thompson and Venables.
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
. A memorial garden in Bulger's memory was created in Sacred Heart Primary School in his hometown of Kirkby
, the school he would have been expected to attend had he not been murdered.
In March 2010, a call was made to raise the age of criminal responsibility in England from ten to 12. Children's commissioner Maggie Atkinson said that the killers of James Bulger should have undergone "programmes" to help turn their lives around, rather than being prosecuted. The Ministry of Justice
rejected the call, saying that children over the age of ten knew the difference "between bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing".
In April 2010, a 19-year-old man from the Isle of Man
was given a three-month suspended prison sentence for claiming in a Facebook
message that one of his former work colleagues was Robert Thompson. In passing sentence, Deputy High Bailiff Alastair Montgomery said that the teenager had "put that person at significant risk of serious harm" and in a "perilous position" by making the allegation.
revealed that Jon Venables had been returned to prison for an unspecified violation of the terms of his licence of release. The Justice Secretary Jack Straw
stated that Venables had been returned to prison because of "extremely serious allegations", and stated that he was "unable to give further details of the reasons for Jon Venables's return to custody, because it was not in the public interest to do so." Following the Sunday Mirror
s claim on 7 March that Venables was returned to prison on suspected child pornography
charges, Straw repeated that premature disclosure of details of Venables's return to custody was not in the public interest, and that the "motivation throughout has been solely to ensure that some extremely serious allegations are properly investigated and that justice is done". The Children's Secretary
Ed Balls
warned that some parts of the UK media were coming close to breaking the law, and stated, "If we responded to the desire for people to know the facts in public in a way which ends up prejudicing a legal case, we would look back and think we made very irresponsible decisions". Straw revealed on BBC Radio 4
's Today programme that due to the media and public pressure for details to be released, he would "make a judgment about if there's information – given that it's already out in the newspapers – we can confirm."
In a statement to the House of Commons on 8 March 2010, Jack Straw reiterated that it was "not in the interest of justice" to reveal the reason why Venables had been returned to custody. Baroness Butler-Sloss
, the judge who made the decision to grant Venables anonymity in 2001, warned that he could be killed if his new identity was revealed.
James Bulger's mother Denise Fergus said that 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. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice stated that there is a worldwide injunction against publication of either killers' location or new identity.
Venables's return to prison revived a false claim that a man from Fleetwood
, Lancashire
, was Jon Venables. The claim was reported and dismissed in September 2005, but reappeared in March 2010 when it was circulated widely via SMS messages, Facebook and Twitter. Chief Inspector Tracie O'Gara of Lancashire Constabulary
stated: "An individual who was targeted four-and-a-half years ago was not Jon Venables and now he has left the area".
On 21 June 2010, Venables was charged with possession and distribution of indecent images of children. It was alleged that he had downloaded 57 indecent images of children over a 12-month period to February 2010, and allowed other people to access the files through a peer-to-peer
network. Venables faced two charges under the Protection of Children Act 1978
. On 23 July 2010, Venables appeared at a court hearing at the Old Bailey
via a video link, visible only to the judge hearing the case. He pleaded guilty to charges of downloading and distributing child pornography, and was given a sentence of two years' imprisonment. At the court hearing, it emerged that Venables had posed in online chat rooms as 35-year-old Dawn "Dawnie" Smith, a married woman from Liverpool who boasted about abusing her 8-year-old daughter, in the hope of obtaining further child pornography. Venables had contacted his probation officer
in February 2010, fearing that his new identity had been compromised at his place of work. When the officer arrived at his flat, Venables was attempting to remove or destroy the hard drive of his computer with a knife and a tin opener. The officer's suspicions were aroused, and the computer was taken away for examination leading to the discovery of the child pornography, which included children as young as two being raped by adults and penetrative sex with seven- or eight-year-olds.
The judge ruled that Venables's new identity could not be revealed, but the media was allowed to report that he had been living in Cheshire
at the time of his arrest. The High Court also heard that Venables had been arrested on suspicion of affray
in September 2008, following a drunken street fight with another man. Later the same year, he was cautioned
for possession of cocaine
. In November 2010, a review of the National Probation Service handling of the case by Sir David Omand
found that probation officers could not have prevented Venables from downloading child pornography. Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers
, commented that only 24-hour surveillance would have prevented Venables from downloading the material.
Venables was eligible for parole
in July 2011. On 27 June 2011, the parole board decided that Venables would remain in custody, and that his parole would not be considered again for at least another year.
article written by David James Smith, who had been following the Bulger case since the 1993 trial, and again later in a BBC
documentary entitled Jon Venables: What Went Wrong?. Shortly before his 2001 release and when aged 17, Venables was alleged to have had sex with a woman who worked at the Red Bank secure unit where he was held. The female staff member was accused of sexual misconduct and suspended; she never returned to work at Red Bank. A spokesman for St Helens Borough Council
denied that the incident had been covered up, saying: "All allegations were thoroughly investigated by an independent team on the orders of the Home Office and chaired by Arthur de Frischling, a retired prison governor."
Venables began living independently in March 2002. Some time thereafter, he began a relationship with a woman who had a five-year-old child. It is not known whether Venables had already begun downloading child pornography at the time of dating the woman, though he denies having ever met the child. In 2005, when Venables was in his mid-20s, his probation officer met another girlfriend of his, who was aged 17. After a number of "young girlfriends" it was presumed that Venables was having a delayed adolescence
.
After a period of apparently reduced supervision, Venables began excessively drinking, taking drugs, downloading child pornography, as well as visiting Merseyside (a breach of a fundamental condition of his licence). In 2008 a new probation officer noted that he spent "a great deal of leisure time" playing video games and on the Internet. In September that year, Venables was arrested on suspicion of affray after a fight outside a nightclub; he claimed he was acting in self-defence and the charges were later dropped after he agreed to go on an alcohol-awareness course. Three months later he was found to be in possession of cocaine; he was subjected to a curfew.
On two separate occasions, Venables revealed to a friend his true identity.
commented: "Such a change of identity is extremely rare and granted only when the police assess that there is clear and credible evidence of a sustained threat to the offender’s life on release into the community." The incident occurred after a man from Exeter
posted photographs on a website devoted to naming paedophiles, allegedly showing Venables as an adult and giving his name. The Ministry of Justice refused to confirm or deny whether the information was accurate. Bulger's mother Denise Fergus was critical of the decision to give Venables a new identity, reported to be his fourth, and commented: "It’s time for a complete re-think of the way they handle this case, or it is going to keep haunting them because it is clear that he cannot live a lie."
spokesman declined to comment on the reports.
, 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, Thompson and Venables. The scene in the game involves a computer-generated detective pointing out the picture, which is meant to represent a fictional child abduction that the player is then asked to investigate. 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".
In 2008, Swedish playwright Niklas Rådström used the interview transcripts from interrogations with the murderers and their families to recreate the story. His play, Monsters, opened to mixed reviews at the Arcola Theatre
in London
in May 2009.
In August 2009, Australia's Seven Network
used real footage of the abduction to promote its police show City Homicide
. The use of the footage was criticised by Bulger's mother and Seven apologised. A tie in with this saw the Sunrise
co-hosts asking the rhetorical question of whether the killers were now living in Australia. When the question was answered on 24 August 2009 edition, they used one minute and seven seconds to relate the Australian government's two-line denial that they had been settled in the country.
A Hollyoaks
storyline, set to begin in December 2009, was axed after the show gave Bulger's mother Denise Fergus a special screening. The storyline was to feature Loretta Jones
and her friend Chrissy, who had been given new identities before arriving in the village, after being convicted of murdering a child at the age of 12.
Kirkby
Kirkby is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in the metropolitan county of Merseyside in England. The town was developed from the 1950s through 1970s as a means to house the overspill of Liverpool. It is situated roughly north of Huyton, the administrative HQ of the borough and about...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, who was murdered on 12 February 1993, when aged two. He was abducted
Child abduction
Child abduction or Child theft is the unauthorized removal of a minor from the custody of the child's natural or legally appointed guardians....
, torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson (born 23 August 1982) and Jon Venables (born 13 August 1982).
Bulger disappeared from the New Strand Shopping Centre
New Strand Shopping Centre
The New Strand Shopping Centre, known locally as 'The Strand', is the main shopping centre or mall in Bootle, Merseyside, England. Built and opened during the 1960s, it was part of a larger Bootle redevelopment during this period, which was also complemented by the establishment of the Girobank...
in Bootle
Bootle
Bootle is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England, and a 'Post town' in the L postcode area. Formally known as Bootle-cum-Linacre, the town is 4 miles to the north of Liverpool city centre, and has a total resident population of 77,640.Historically part of...
, near Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, while accompanying his mother. His mutilated body was found on a railway line two-and-a-half miles away in Walton, two days after his murder. Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with Bulger's abduction and murder.
The pair were found guilty on 24 November 1993, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history. They were sentenced to custody until they reached adulthood, initially until the age of 18, and were released on a lifelong licence in June 2001. The case has prompted widespread debate on the issue of how to handle young offenders when they are sentenced or released from custody.
The murder
CCTVClosed-circuit television
Closed-circuit television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors....
evidence from the New Strand Shopping Centre
New Strand Shopping Centre
The New Strand Shopping Centre, known locally as 'The Strand', is the main shopping centre or mall in Bootle, Merseyside, England. Built and opened during the 1960s, it was part of a larger Bootle redevelopment during this period, which was also complemented by the establishment of the Girobank...
in Bootle
Bootle
Bootle is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England, and a 'Post town' in the L postcode area. Formally known as Bootle-cum-Linacre, the town is 4 miles to the north of Liverpool city centre, and has a total resident population of 77,640.Historically part of...
taken on 12 February 1993 showed Thompson and Venables casually observing children, apparently selecting a target. The boys were playing truant
Truancy
Truancy is any intentional unauthorized absence from compulsory schooling. The term typically describes absences caused by students of their own free will, and usually does not refer to legitimate "excused" absences, such as ones related to medical conditions...
from school, which they did regularly. Throughout the day, Thompson and Venables were seen stealing various items including sweets, a troll doll
Troll doll
Troll dolls, originally known as Leprechauns and also known as Dam dolls, Gonks, Wishniks, Treasure Trolls, and Norfins, became one of America's biggest toy fads from the autumn of 1963 through 1965...
, some batteries and a can of blue paint, some of which were later found at the murder scene. It was later revealed by one of the boys that they were planning to find a child to abduct, lead him to the busy road alongside the mall, and push him into the path of oncoming traffic.
That same afternoon, James Bulger (often called "Jamie" by the press, although never by his family), from nearby Kirkby, went with his mother Denise to the New Strand Shopping Centre. While inside the A.R. Tym's butcher shop at around 3:40 pm, Denise, who had been momentarily distracted, realised that her son had disappeared. He had been wandering by the open door of the shop while she placed an order, and was spotted by Thompson and Venables. They approached him and spoke to him, before taking him by the hand and leading him out of the precinct. This moment was captured on a CCTV camera recording timestamped at 15:42.
The boys took Bulger on a meandering adj=on 2.5 walk across Liverpool to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal
Leeds and Liverpool Canal
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , it crosses the Pennines, and includes 91 locks on the main line...
where he was dropped on his head and suffered injuries to his face. The boys joked about pushing Bulger into the canal. During the walk across Liverpool, the boys were seen by 38 people. Bulger had a bump on his forehead and was crying, but most bystanders did nothing to intervene, assuming that he was a younger brother. Two people challenged the older boys, but they claimed that Bulger was a younger brother or that he was lost and they were taking him to the local police station. At one point, the boys took Bulger into a pet shop, from which they were ejected. Eventually the boys arrived in the village of Walton, and with Walton Lane police station across the road facing them, they hesitated and led Bulger up a steep bank to a railway line near the disused Walton & Anfield railway station
Walton & Anfield railway station
Walton & Anfield railway station was a station located on the Canada Dock Branch to east side of Walton Lane in Walton, Liverpool, England, it opened on 1 July 1870. It closed to passengers on 31 May 1948.The station was located near Goodison Park...
, close to Anfield Cemetery
Anfield Cemetery
Anfield Cemetery, also known as the City of Liverpool Cemetery, is on Priory Road, Anfield, Liverpool, England .It covers an area of some and includes axial and circular paths, two chapels and a Gothic style catacomb. The layout of the cemetery was designed by Edward Kemp.The cemetery is adjacent...
, where they began torturing him.
Humbrol
Humbrol Limited was a British manufacturer of model kits, toys and paints, producing under its own brand and the Airfix, Sky Marks, Young Scientist, 1st Gear, High Speed and W. Britain brands...
modelling paint, which they had shoplifted earlier, into Bulger's left eye. They kicked and stamped on him, and threw bricks and stones at him. Batteries were placed in Bulger's mouth. Police believed some batteries may have been inserted into his anus, although none were found there. Finally, a 22 pounds (10 kg) iron bar, described in court as a railway fishplate
Fishplate
In rail terminology, a fishplate, splice bar or joint bar is a metal bar that is bolted to the ends of two rails to join them together in a track. The name is derived from fish, a wooden bar with a curved profile used to strengthen a ship's mast...
, was dropped on him. Bulger suffered ten skull fracture
Skull fracture
A skull fracture is a break in one or more of the bones in the skull usually occurring as a result of blunt force trauma. If the force of the impact is excessive the bone may fracture at or near the site of the impact...
s as a result of the iron bar striking his head. Dr. Alan Williams, the case's pathologist, stated that Bulger suffered so many injuries — 42 in total — that none could be isolated as the fatal blow.
Police suspected that there was a sexual element to the crime, since Bulger's shoes, stockings, trousers and underpants had been removed. The pathologist's report read out in court stated that Bulger's foreskin
Foreskin
In male human anatomy, the foreskin is a generally retractable double-layered fold of skin and mucous membrane that covers the glans penis and protects the urinary meatus when the penis is not erect...
had been forcibly retracted
Forcible retraction of the foreskin
Forcible retraction of the foreskin, sometimes called premature retraction, in infants or young children can damage the glans and mucous inner tissue of the foreskin. Doctors or parents who may be unfamiliar with the foreskin can often forcibly retract it, unaware that it can be damaging.At birth,...
. When questioned about this aspect of the attack by detectives and the child psychiatrist, Dr. Eileen Vizard, Thompson and Venables were reluctant to give details; they also vehemently denied inserting some of the batteries into Bulger's anus. At his eventual parole, Venables' psychiatrist until he was aged 21, Dr. Susan Bailey, reported that "visiting and revisiting the issue with Jon as a child, and now as an adolescent, he gives no account of any sexual element to the offence."
Before they left him, the boys laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, in the hope that a train would hit him and make his death appear to be an accident. After Bulger's killers left the scene, his body was cut in half by a train. Bulger's severed body was discovered two days later, on 14 February. A forensic pathologist
Forensic pathology
Forensic pathology is a branch of pathology concerned with determining the cause of death by examination of a corpse. The autopsy is performed by the pathologist at the request of a coroner or medical examiner usually during the investigation of criminal law cases and civil law cases in some...
testified that he had died before he was struck by the train.
The police quickly found low-resolution video images of Bulger's abduction from the New Strand Shopping Centre by two unidentified boys. As the circumstances surrounding the death became clear, tabloid newspapers denounced the people who had seen Bulger but had not intervened to aid Bulger as he was being taken through the city, as the "Liverpool 38". The railway embankment upon which his body had been discovered was flooded with hundreds of bunches of flowers.
The crime created great anger in Liverpool and throughout the country. The family of one boy who was detained for questioning, but subsequently released, had to flee the city. The breakthrough came when a woman, on seeing slightly enhanced images of the two boys on national television, recognised Venables, who, she knew, had played truant with Thompson that day. She contacted police and the boys were arrested.
Arrest
Merseyside Police
Merseyside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Merseyside in North West England. The force area is 647 square kilometres with a population of around 1.5 million...
. Early press reports and police statements had referred to Bulger being seen with "two youths" (suggesting that the killers were teenagers), the ages of the boys being difficult to ascertain from the images captured by CCTV.
Forensic tests confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as found on Bulger's body. Both had blood on their shoes; the blood on Thompson's shoe was matched to Bulger's through DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
tests. A pattern of bruising on Bulger's right cheek matched the features of the upper part of a shoe worn by Thompson; a paint mark in the toecap of one of Venables' shoes indicated he must have used "some force" when he kicked Bulger.
The boys were charged with Bulger's murder on 20 February 1993, and appeared at South Sefton Youth Court on 22 February 1993, when they were remanded in custody to await trial. 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). While awaiting trial, they were held in the secure units where they would eventually be sentenced to be detained indefinitely
At Her Majesty's pleasure
At Her Majesty's pleasure is a legal term of art derived from all legitimate authority for government stemming from the Crown. Originating from the United Kingdom, it is now used throughout the Commonwealth realms...
.
Trial
Up to 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 opened at Preston Crown Court
Crown Court
The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
on 1 November 1993, conducted as an adult trial
Trial as an adult
Trial as an adult is a term used to describe a situation when a juvenile offender is tried as if they were an adult.Where specific protections exist for juvenile offenders , these protections may be waived.Sanctions handed down are often harsher than those imposed on...
with the accused in the dock away from their parents, and the judge and court officials in legal regalia. The boys denied the charges of murder, abduction and attempted abduction brought against them. The attempted abduction charge related to an incident at the New Strand Shopping Centre
New Strand Shopping Centre
The New Strand Shopping Centre, known locally as 'The Strand', is the main shopping centre or mall in Bootle, Merseyside, England. Built and opened during the 1960s, it was part of a larger Bootle redevelopment during this period, which was also complemented by the establishment of the Girobank...
earlier on 12 February 1993, the day of Bulger's death. Thompson and Venables had attempted to lead away another two-year-old boy, but had been prevented by the boy's mother. 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 later criticised by the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
, which ruled in 1999 that they had not received a fair trial by being tried in public in an adult court.
At the trial, the lead prosecution counsel
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
Richard Henriques QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
successfully rebutted the principle of doli incapax
Conclusive presumption
A conclusive presumption is a type of presumption used in several legal systems.-England and Wales:...
, which presumes that young children cannot be held legally responsible for their actions. The child psychiatrist Dr. Eileen Vizard, who interviewed Thompson before the trial, was asked in court whether he would know the difference between right and wrong, that it was wrong to take a young child away from its mother, and that it was wrong to cause injury to a child. Vizard replied, "If the issue is on the balance of probabilities, I think I can answer with certainty". Vizard also said that Thompson was suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder after the attack on Bulger. Dr. Susan Bailey, the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
forensic psychiatrist
Forensic psychiatry
Forensic psychiatry is a sub-speciality of psychiatry and an auxiliar science of criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry...
who interviewed Venables, said unequivocally that he knew the difference between right and wrong.
Thompson and Venables did not speak during the trial, and the case against them was based to a large extent on the more than 20 hours of tape-recorded police interviews with the boys, which were played back in court. 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. Venables would later describe how Bulger seemed to "like" him, holding his hand and allowing him to pick him up on the meandering journey to the scene of his eventual death.
The prosecution admitted a number of exhibits during the trial, including a box of 27 bricks, a blood-stained stone, Bulger's underpants, and the rusty iron bar described as a railway fishplate. The pathologist spent 33 minutes outlining the injuries sustained by Bulger; many of those to his legs had been inflicted after he was stripped from the waist down. Brain damage
Brain damage
"Brain damage" or "brain injury" is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors...
was extensive and included a haemorrhage.
The two boys, by then aged 11, were found guilty of Bulger's murder at the Preston court on 24 November 1993, becoming the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century. The judge, Mr. Justice Morland, told Thompson and Venables that they had committed a crime of "unparalleled evil and barbarity... In my judgment, your conduct was both cunning and very wicked." Morland sentenced them to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure
At Her Majesty's pleasure
At Her Majesty's pleasure is a legal term of art derived from all legitimate authority for government stemming from the Crown. Originating from the United Kingdom, it is now used throughout the Commonwealth realms...
, with a recommendation that they should be kept in custody for "very, very many years to come", recommending a minimum term of eight years.
At the close of the trial, the judge ruled their names should be released (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 shot
Mug shot
A mug shot, mugshot or booking photograph, is a photographic portrait taken after one is arrested. The purpose of the mug shot is to allow law enforcement to have a photographic record of the arrested individual to allow for identification by victims and investigators. Most mug shots are two-part,...
s taken during questioning by police. Sir David Omand
David Omand
Sir David Bruce Omand GCB is a former senior British civil servant.-Career:Educated at Glasgow Academy and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Omand started out with the Government Communications Headquarters. After years of service with the Ministry of Defence, from 1996 to 1997 he was Director of...
would later criticise this decision and outline the difficulties created by it in his 2010 review of the probation service's handling of the case.
Post-trial
Shortly after the trial, and after the judge had recommended a minimum sentence of eight years, Lord Taylor of GosforthPeter Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth
Peter Murray Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth PC was the Lord Chief Justice of England from 1992 until his premature retirement in 1996, due to poor health which led to his death the following year.-Family:...
, the Lord Chief Justice
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...
, ordered that the two boys should serve a minimum of ten years, which would have made them eligible for release in February 2003 at the age of 20.
The editors of The Sun newspaper handed a petition bearing nearly 280,000 signatures to Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Michael Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...
, in a bid to increase the time spent by both boys in custody. This campaign was successful, and in July 1994 Howard announced that the boys would be kept in custody for a minimum of fifteen years, meaning that they would not be considered for release until February 2008, by which time they would be 25 years of age.
Lord Donaldson
John Donaldson, Baron Donaldson of Lymington
John Francis Donaldson, Baron Donaldson of Lymington PC, QC was a senior British judge who served as Master of the Rolls for 10 years, from 1982 to 1992.- Early and private life :...
criticised Howard's intervention, describing the increased tariff as "institutionalised vengeance ... [by] a politician playing to the gallery". The increased minimum term was overturned in 1997 by the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
, who ruled that it was "unlawful" for the Home Secretary to decide on minimum sentences for young offenders. The High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
and European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
have since ruled that, though the parliament may set minimum and maximum terms for individual categories of crime, it is the responsibility of the trial judge, with the benefit of all the evidence and argument from both prosecution and defence counsel, to determine the minimum term in individual criminal cases.
The case led to public anguish, and concern at moral decay in Britain. Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, then the Shadow Home Secretary
Shadow Home Secretary
In British politics, the Shadow Home Secretary is the person within the shadow cabinet who 'shadows' the Home Secretary; this effectively means scrutinising government policy on home affairs including policing, national security, immigration, the criminal justice system, the prison service, and...
, gave a speech in Wellingborough
Wellingborough
Wellingborough is a market town and borough in Northamptonshire, England, situated some from the county town of Northampton. The town is situated on the north side of the River Nene, most of the older town is sited on the flanks of the hills above the river's current flood plain...
during which he said: "We hear of crimes so horrific they provoke anger and disbelief in equal proportions... These are the ugly manifestations of a society that is becoming unworthy of that name." Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
said that "society needs to condemn a little more, and understand a little less". The trial judge Mr. Justice Morland stated that exposure to violent videos might have encouraged the actions of Thompson and Venables, but this was disputed by David Maclean
David Maclean
David John Maclean, Baron Blencathra is a Conservative Party life peer. He was the Member of Parliament for Penrith and The Border from 1983 to 2010.-Biography:...
, the Minister of State at the Home Office at the time, who pointed out that police had found no evidence linking the case with "video nasties
Video nasty
"Video nasty" was a colloquial term coined in the United Kingdom by 1982 which originally applied to a number of films distributed on video cassette that were criticized for their violent content by the press, commentators such as Mary Whitehouse and various religious organizations.While violence...
". Some UK tabloid newspapers claimed that the attack on James Bulger was inspired by the film Child's Play 3
Child's Play 3
Child's Play 3, also known as Child's Play 3: Look Who's Stalking, is a 1991 horror film. It is the third installment in the Child's Play series with Brad Dourif returning as the voice of Chucky...
, and campaigned for the rules on "video nasties" to be tightened. Inspector Ray Simpson of Merseyside Police
Merseyside Police
Merseyside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Merseyside in North West England. The force area is 647 square kilometres with a population of around 1.5 million...
commented: "If you are going to link this murder to a film, you might as well link it to The Railway Children
The Railway Children (film)
The Railway Children is a 1970 British drama film based on the novel of the same name by E. Nesbit. The film was directed by Lionel Jeffries, and stars Dinah Sheridan, Jenny Agutter , Sally Thomsett and Bernard Cribbins in leading roles...
". The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It introduced a number of changes to the existing law, most notably in the restriction and reduction of existing rights and in greater penalties for certain "anti-social" behaviours...
clarified the rules on the availability of certain types of video material to children.
Detention
Thompson was held at the Barton Moss secure unit in ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, which housed 14 young offenders and was divided into three wings, including one for girls. Venables was detained in Vardy House, a small eight-bedded unit at Red Bank secure unit in St. Helens
St Helens, Merseyside
St Helens is a large town in Merseyside, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens with a population of just over 100,000, part of an urban area with a total population of 176,843 at the time of the 2001 Census...
on Merseyside — the same facility where, 25 years prior, Mary Bell
Mary Bell
Mary Flora Bell was convicted in December 1968 of the manslaughter of two boys, Martin Brown and Brian Howe...
had been held for half of her 12-year sentence. These locations were not publicly known until after the boys' release.
Details of the boys' lives were recorded twice daily on running sheets and signed by the member of staff who had written them. The records were stored at the units and copied to officials in Whitehall
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...
. The boys were taught to lie about their real names and to conceal the crime they had committed which resulted in them being in the units. Venables' parents regularly visited their son at Red Bank, just as Thompson's mother did — every three days — at Barton Moss.
The boys received education and rehabilitation; despite initial problems, Venables was said to have eventually made good progress at Red Bank, resulting in him being kept there for the full eight years, despite the facility only being a short-stay remand unit. Thompson was said, by a social worker who observed him for his eight years at Barton Moss, to be well-behaved and intelligent, and to have coped well with his situation, adjusting to life in the secure unit quickly, but never showing any remorse or interest in his crime. By the age of 14, Thompson was taken on outings to the theatre, the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
, and shopping centres, where he could spend some of the £60-per-month allowance he received. At the age of 16, he acquired a girlfriend, a fellow inmate who served time in the unit for one year. Venables was taken on trips to Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, swimming in Wigan
Wigan
Wigan is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Douglas, south-west of Bolton, north of Warrington and west-northwest of Manchester. Wigan is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its administrative centre. The town of Wigan had a total...
, and once to watch a Manchester United football match at Old Trafford
Old Trafford
Old Trafford commonly refers to two sporting arenas:* Old Trafford, home of Manchester United F.C.* Old Trafford Cricket Ground, home of Lancashire County Cricket ClubOld Trafford can also refer to:...
. Both boys, however, were reported to suffer posttraumatic stress disorder, and Venables in particular told of experiencing nightmares and flashbacks to the murder.
Appeal and release
In 1999, lawyers for Thompson and Venables appealed to the European Court of Human RightsEuropean Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
that the boys' trial had not been impartial, since they were too young to follow proceedings and understand an adult court. The European court dismissed their claim that the trial was inhuman and degrading treatment, but upheld their claim they were denied a fair hearing
Right to a fair trial
The right to fair trial is an essential right in all countries respecting the rule of law. A trial in these countries that is deemed unfair will typically be restarted, or its verdict voided....
by the nature of the court proceedings. The European Court also held that Michael Howard's intervention had led to a "highly charged atmosphere", which resulted in an unfair judgment. On 15 March 1999, the court in Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
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".
In September 1999, Bulger's parents applied to the European Court of Human Rights, but failed to persuade the court that a victim of a crime has the right to be involved in determining the sentence of the perpetrator.
The European court case led to the new Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf
Harry Woolf, Baron Woolf
Harry Kenneth Woolf, Baron Woolf, PC, FBA, , born 2 May 1933, was Master of the Rolls from 1996 until 2000 and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2000 until 2005. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 made him the first Lord Chief Justice to be President of the Courts of England and Wales...
, reviewing the minimum sentence. In October 2000, he recommended the tariff be reduced from ten to eight years, adding that young offender institutions
Her Majesty's Young Offender Institution
Her Majesty's Young Offenders Institution is a type of British prison intended for offenders aged between 18 and 20, although some prisons cater for younger offenders from ages 15 to 17, who are classed as juvenile offenders...
were a "corrosive atmosphere" for the juveniles.
In June 2001, after a six-month review, the parole board
Parole Board
A parole board is a panel of people who decide whether an offender should be released from prison on parole after serving at least a minimum portion of their sentence as prescribed by the sentencing judge. Parole boards are used in many jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and the United...
ruled the boys were no longer a threat to public safety and could be released as their minimum tariff had expired in February of that year. The Home Secretary David Blunkett
David Blunkett
David Blunkett is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, having represented Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2010...
approved the decision, and they were released a few weeks later on a lifelong licence after serving eight years. Both men were given new identities and moved to secret locations under a "witness protection
Witness protection
Witness protection is protection of a threatened witness or any person involved in the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during and after a trial, usually by police...
"-style action. This was supported by the fabrication of passports, national insurance numbers, qualification certificates and medical records. Blunkett added his own conditions to their licence and insisted on being sent daily updates on the men's actions.
The terms of their release include the following: they are not allowed to contact each other or Bulger's family; they are prohibited from visiting the Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
region; curfews may be imposed on them and they must report to probation officers. Breach of those rules would make them liable to be returned to prison. If they were deemed to be a risk to the public, they would be returned to prison.
An injunction
Injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
was imposed on the media after the trial, preventing the publication of details about the boys. The worldwide injunction was kept in force following their release on parole, so their new identities and locations could not be published. Blunkett stated in 2001: "The injunction was granted because there was a real and strong possibility that their lives would be at risk if their identities became known".
Subsequent events
In the months after the trial, and the birth of their second son, Michael, the marriage of Bulger's parents, Ralph and Denise, broke down; they divorced in 1995. Denise married Stuart Fergus in 1998 and they have two sons together. Ralph also remarried and has three daughters by his second wife.The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
revealed that Venables and Thompson had passed A-levels
GCE Advanced Level
The Advanced Level General Certificate of Education, commonly referred to as an A-level, is a qualification offered by education institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Cameroon, and the Cayman Islands...
during their sentences. The paper also told how the Bulger family's lawyers had consulted psychiatric experts in order to present the parole panel with a report which suggested that Thompson is an undiagnosed psychopath
Psychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
, citing his lack of remorse during his trial and arrest. The report was ultimately dismissed. However, his lack of remorse at the time, in stark contrast to Venables, led to considerable scrutiny from the parole panel. Upon release, both Thompson and Venables had lost all trace of their Liverpool accents
Scouse
Scouse is an accent and dialect of English found primarily in the Metropolitan county of Merseyside, and closely associated with the city of Liverpool and the adjoining urban areas such as the boroughs of south Sefton, Knowsley and the Wirral...
. In a psychiatric report prepared in 2000 prior to Venables' release, he was described as posing a "trivial" risk to the public and unlikely to reoffend. The chances of his successful rehabilitation were described as "very high".
The Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
The Manchester Evening News is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom. It is published every day except Sunday and is owned by Trinity Mirror plc following its sale by Guardian Media Group in early 2010. It has an average daily circulation of 90,973 copies...
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 £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
30,000 for contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
and ordered to pay costs of £120,000.
No significant publication or vigilante action against Thompson or Venables has occurred. Despite this, Bulger's mother, Denise, told how in 2004 she received a tip-off from an anonymous source that helped her locate Thompson. Upon seeing him, she was "paralysed with hatred" and was unable to confront him.
In April 2007, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act
Freedom of Information Act 2000
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom on a national level...
confirmed that the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
had spent £13,000 on an injunction to prevent a foreign magazine from revealing the new identities of Thompson and Venables.
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
Esther Rantzen
Esther Louise Rantzen CBE is an English journalist and television presenter who is best known for presenting the BBC television series That's Life!, and for her work in various charitable causes. She is founder of the child protection charity ChildLine, and also advocates the work of the Burma...
. A memorial garden in Bulger's memory was created in Sacred Heart Primary School in his hometown of Kirkby
Kirkby
Kirkby is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in the metropolitan county of Merseyside in England. The town was developed from the 1950s through 1970s as a means to house the overspill of Liverpool. It is situated roughly north of Huyton, the administrative HQ of the borough and about...
, the school he would have been expected to attend had he not been murdered.
In March 2010, a call was made to raise the age of criminal responsibility in England from ten to 12. Children's commissioner Maggie Atkinson said that the killers of James Bulger should have undergone "programmes" to help turn their lives around, rather than being prosecuted. The Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Justice is a ministerial department of the UK Government headed by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, who is responsible for improvements to the justice system so that it better serves the public...
rejected the call, saying that children over the age of ten knew the difference "between bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing".
In April 2010, a 19-year-old man from the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
was given a three-month suspended prison sentence for claiming in a Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
message that one of his former work colleagues was Robert Thompson. In passing sentence, Deputy High Bailiff Alastair Montgomery said that the teenager had "put that person at significant risk of serious harm" and in a "perilous position" by making the allegation.
2010 imprisonment of Venables
On 2 March 2010, the Ministry of JusticeMinistry of Justice (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Justice is a ministerial department of the UK Government headed by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, who is responsible for improvements to the justice system so that it better serves the public...
revealed that Jon Venables had been returned to prison for an unspecified violation of the terms of his licence of release. The Justice Secretary Jack Straw
Jack Straw
Jack Straw , British politician.Jack Straw may also refer to:* Jack Straw , English* "Jack Straw" , 1971 song by the Grateful Dead* Jack Straw by W...
stated that Venables had been returned to prison because of "extremely serious allegations", and stated that he was "unable to give further details of the reasons for Jon Venables's return to custody, because it was not in the public interest to do so." Following the Sunday Mirror
Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday sister paper of the Daily Mirror. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and was renamed the Sunday Mirror in 1963. Trinity Mirror also owns The People...
s claim on 7 March that Venables was returned to prison on suspected child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
charges, Straw repeated that premature disclosure of details of Venables's return to custody was not in the public interest, and that the "motivation throughout has been solely to ensure that some extremely serious allegations are properly investigated and that justice is done". The Children's Secretary
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families
The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families is a Cabinet minister in the United Kingdom. The post was created on 28 June 2007 after the disbanding of the Department for Education and Skills by Gordon Brown. The first Secretary of State was Ed Balls, a former treasury aide to Brown...
Ed Balls
Ed Balls
Edward Michael Balls, known as Ed Balls, is a British Labour politician, who has been a Member of Parliament since 2005, currently for Morley and Outwood, and is the current Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer....
warned that some parts of the UK media were coming close to breaking the law, and stated, "If we responded to the desire for people to know the facts in public in a way which ends up prejudicing a legal case, we would look back and think we made very irresponsible decisions". Straw revealed on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's Today programme that due to the media and public pressure for details to be released, he would "make a judgment about if there's information – given that it's already out in the newspapers – we can confirm."
In a statement to the House of Commons on 8 March 2010, Jack Straw reiterated that it was "not in the interest of justice" to reveal the reason why Venables had been returned to custody. Baroness Butler-Sloss
Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss
Anne Elizabeth Oldfield Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss, GBE, PC is a retired English judge. She was the first female Lord Justice of Appeal and, until 2004, was the highest-ranking female judge in the United Kingdom. Until June 2007, she chaired the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess...
, the judge who made the decision to grant Venables anonymity in 2001, warned that he could be killed if his new identity was revealed.
James Bulger's mother Denise Fergus said that 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. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice stated that there is a worldwide injunction against publication of either killers' location or new identity.
Venables's return to prison revived a false claim that a man from Fleetwood
Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a town within the Wyre district of Lancashire, England, lying at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 26,840 people at the 2001 Census. It forms part of the Greater Blackpool conurbation. The town was the first planned community of the Victorian era...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, was Jon Venables. The claim was reported and dismissed in September 2005, but reappeared in March 2010 when it was circulated widely via SMS messages, Facebook and Twitter. Chief Inspector Tracie O'Gara of Lancashire Constabulary
Lancashire Constabulary
Lancashire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial county of Lancashire in the North West England. The force's headquarters are at Hutton, near the city of Preston...
stated: "An individual who was targeted four-and-a-half years ago was not Jon Venables and now he has left the area".
On 21 June 2010, Venables was charged with possession and distribution of indecent images of children. It was alleged that he had downloaded 57 indecent images of children over a 12-month period to February 2010, and allowed other people to access the files through a peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
network. Venables faced two charges under the Protection of Children Act 1978
Protection of Children Act 1978
The Protection of Children Act 1978 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.The Protection of Children Bill was put before Parliament as a Private Member's Bill by Cyril Townsend in the 1977-1978 session of Parliament....
. On 23 July 2010, Venables appeared at a court hearing at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
via a video link, visible only to the judge hearing the case. He pleaded guilty to charges of downloading and distributing child pornography, and was given a sentence of two years' imprisonment. At the court hearing, it emerged that Venables had posed in online chat rooms as 35-year-old Dawn "Dawnie" Smith, a married woman from Liverpool who boasted about abusing her 8-year-old daughter, in the hope of obtaining further child pornography. Venables had contacted his probation officer
Probation officer
Parole officers and probation officers play a role in criminal justice systems by supervising offenders released from incarceration or sentenced to non-custodial sanctions such as community service...
in February 2010, fearing that his new identity had been compromised at his place of work. When the officer arrived at his flat, Venables was attempting to remove or destroy the hard drive of his computer with a knife and a tin opener. The officer's suspicions were aroused, and the computer was taken away for examination leading to the discovery of the child pornography, which included children as young as two being raped by adults and penetrative sex with seven- or eight-year-olds.
The judge ruled that Venables's new identity could not be revealed, but the media was allowed to report that he had been living in Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
at the time of his arrest. The High Court also heard that Venables had been arrested on suspicion of affray
Affray
In many legal jurisdictions related to English common law, affray is a public order offence consisting of the fighting of two or more persons in a public place to the terror of ordinary people...
in September 2008, following a drunken street fight with another man. Later the same year, he was cautioned
Police caution
A police caution is a formal alternative to prosecution in minor cases, administered by the police and other law enforcement agencies in England and Wales, and in Hong Kong...
for possession of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
. In November 2010, a review of the National Probation Service handling of the case by Sir David Omand
David Omand
Sir David Bruce Omand GCB is a former senior British civil servant.-Career:Educated at Glasgow Academy and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Omand started out with the Government Communications Headquarters. After years of service with the Ministry of Defence, from 1996 to 1997 he was Director of...
found that probation officers could not have prevented Venables from downloading child pornography. Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers
National Association of Probation Officers
The National Association of Probation Officers is the trade union that represents probation officers and Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service reporters in the United Kingdom.NAPO was formed in 1912...
, commented that only 24-hour surveillance would have prevented Venables from downloading the material.
Venables was eligible for parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
in July 2011. On 27 June 2011, the parole board decided that Venables would remain in custody, and that his parole would not be considered again for at least another year.
Venables' relationships and other misdemeanours
In the aftermath of his imprisonment in 2010, allegations were reported in the media of Venables' sexual encounters with a female member of staff at the secure unit he was detained in while serving his original murder sentence. In April 2011, these allegations were outlined in a Sunday Times MagazineThe Sunday Times Magazine
The Sunday Times Magazine is a supplement to The Sunday Times newspaper. It was launched in 1962 and was redesigned in November 2008.-References:...
article written by David James Smith, who had been following the Bulger case since the 1993 trial, and again later in a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
documentary entitled Jon Venables: What Went Wrong?. Shortly before his 2001 release and when aged 17, Venables was alleged to have had sex with a woman who worked at the Red Bank secure unit where he was held. The female staff member was accused of sexual misconduct and suspended; she never returned to work at Red Bank. A spokesman for St Helens Borough Council
Metropolitan Borough of St Helens
The Metropolitan Borough of St Helens is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It is named after its largest town St Helens, and covers an area which includes the settlements of Newton-le-Willows, Earlestown, Haydock, Rainhill, Eccleston, Clock Face, Billinge and...
denied that the incident had been covered up, saying: "All allegations were thoroughly investigated by an independent team on the orders of the Home Office and chaired by Arthur de Frischling, a retired prison governor."
Venables began living independently in March 2002. Some time thereafter, he began a relationship with a woman who had a five-year-old child. It is not known whether Venables had already begun downloading child pornography at the time of dating the woman, though he denies having ever met the child. In 2005, when Venables was in his mid-20s, his probation officer met another girlfriend of his, who was aged 17. After a number of "young girlfriends" it was presumed that Venables was having a delayed adolescence
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
.
After a period of apparently reduced supervision, Venables began excessively drinking, taking drugs, downloading child pornography, as well as visiting Merseyside (a breach of a fundamental condition of his licence). In 2008 a new probation officer noted that he spent "a great deal of leisure time" playing video games and on the Internet. In September that year, Venables was arrested on suspicion of affray after a fight outside a nightclub; he claimed he was acting in self-defence and the charges were later dropped after he agreed to go on an alcohol-awareness course. Three months later he was found to be in possession of cocaine; he was subjected to a curfew.
On two separate occasions, Venables revealed to a friend his true identity.
New identity for Venables
On 4 May 2011, it was reported that Venables would be given a new identity, following what was described as a "serious security breach" which revealed an identity that he had been using before his imprisonment in 2010. Details of the breach could not be reported for legal reasons. A spokesman for the Ministry of JusticeMinistry of Justice (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Justice is a ministerial department of the UK Government headed by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, who is responsible for improvements to the justice system so that it better serves the public...
commented: "Such a change of identity is extremely rare and granted only when the police assess that there is clear and credible evidence of a sustained threat to the offender’s life on release into the community." The incident occurred after a man from Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
posted photographs on a website devoted to naming paedophiles, allegedly showing Venables as an adult and giving his name. The Ministry of Justice refused to confirm or deny whether the information was accurate. Bulger's mother Denise Fergus was critical of the decision to give Venables a new identity, reported to be his fourth, and commented: "It’s time for a complete re-think of the way they handle this case, or it is going to keep haunting them because it is clear that he cannot live a lie."
Venables "locked up indefinitely"
In November 2011, it was reported that officials had decided that Venables would stay in prison for the foreseeable future, as he would be likely to reveal his true identity if released. A Ministry of JusticeMinistry of Justice (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Justice is a ministerial department of the UK Government headed by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, who is responsible for improvements to the justice system so that it better serves the public...
spokesman declined to comment on the reports.
Depictions of the case in the media
In June 2007 a computer game based on the TV series Law & OrderLaw & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
, titled Law & Order: Double or Nothing
Law & Order: Double or Nothing
Law & Order: Double or Nothing is a computer game released in 2003. The game is based on the popular US television series, Law & Order. It's the second Law & Order game after Law & Order: Dead on the Money.- Controversy :...
(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, Thompson and Venables. The scene in the game involves a computer-generated detective pointing out the picture, which is meant to represent a fictional child abduction that the player is then asked to investigate. 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".
In 2008, Swedish playwright Niklas Rådström used the interview transcripts from interrogations with the murderers and their families to recreate the story. His play, Monsters, opened to mixed reviews at the Arcola Theatre
Arcola Theatre
Arcola Theatre is a studio theatre in Dalston, in the London Borough of Hackney. The theatre's ambition is to create and present high-quality theatre with a social and political relevance to its multicultural local community as well as a wider audience....
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in May 2009.
In August 2009, Australia's Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
used real footage of the abduction to promote its police show City Homicide
City Homicide
City Homicide was an Australian television drama series that aired on the Seven Network between 27 August 2007 – 30 March 2011. The series was set on the Homicide floor of a metropolitan police headquarters in Melbourne...
. The use of the footage was criticised by Bulger's mother and Seven apologised. A tie in with this saw the Sunrise
Sunrise (TV program)
Sunrise is an Australian breakfast television program, broadcast on the Seven Network. On weekdays the programme follows Seven Early News, and runs from 6am through to 9am.-History:...
co-hosts asking the rhetorical question of whether the killers were now living in Australia. When the question was answered on 24 August 2009 edition, they used one minute and seven seconds to relate the Australian government's two-line denial that they had been settled in the country.
A Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks is a long-running British television soap opera, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill...
storyline, set to begin in December 2009, was axed after the show gave Bulger's mother Denise Fergus a special screening. The storyline was to feature Loretta Jones
Loretta Jones
Loretta Jones is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap operas Hollyoaks and Hollyoaks Later. The character is played by Melissa Walton and first appeared on-screen on 26 November 2008 during the first series of the Hollyoaks spin-off Hollyoaks Later as a new love interest for the...
and her friend Chrissy, who had been given new identities before arriving in the village, after being convicted of murdering a child at the age of 12.
See also
- Eric SmithEric Smith (murderer)Eric M. Smith is an American criminal, incarcerated for the murder, sexual abuse and mutilation of four-year-old Derrick Robie on August 2, 1993, in Steuben County, New York....
- Mary BellMary BellMary Flora Bell was convicted in December 1968 of the manslaughter of two boys, Martin Brown and Brian Howe...
- The Edlington attempted murders
External links
- How Edlington case follows course paved by Bulger trial BBC News, 22 January 2010
- Recollections from key people involved in the Bulger trial, ten years on. The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 6 February 2003. - 'James would be 18 now - the pain of losing him will never go away' The ObserverThe ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, 2 March 2008 - Michael Jackson’s Heal The World released to support new Liverpool James Bulger centre for bullied children Liverpool Daily PostLiverpool Daily PostThe Liverpool Daily Post is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Friday and is published in Merseyside, Cheshire, and North Wales editions, and is a morning paper...
, 8 October 2009