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More press conferences, terrible details beginning to emerge about the state James was found in, and the chilling prospect, soon confirmed, that indeed it was children who had done this. "It is hard to take in really. Everyone called him Chubby, because of his round, cherub's face. The most agonising thing about the whole case was that so many people had stopped them and questioned them. his killers were just 10 years old and attention focused on their upbringing and dysfunctional home life. . Other parents came in to complain about attention seeking. Who knows. Look at mine. Behind them eyes bore into them - from everyone on all sides, journalists, their parents, members of the public, and of course, theBulgerfamily. Meanwhile, A petition demanding a public inquiry into James Bulger's murder case has got nearly 15,000 signatures in one day. Financially, the couple appeared to be functioning, but meanwhile, Susan was at the end of her rope with her eldest son, who, having become increasingly frustrated at his inability to communicate, had grown terribly unhappy and was having temper tantrums regularly. He says 'I know, Mum'. By now, Robert had also stepped comfortably into the role of the aggressor, and, following in the footsteps of his elder brothers, began tormenting his eight-year-old brother on a daily basis. That was in September 1991, 17 months before they killed James Bulger. In any case, the couple drifted together, and in 1983, just fifteen months succeeding Jons birth, Susan gave birth to their third child, a daughter. March 10, 2021 - 20:29 GMT Eve Crosbie. . A police officer remembered Venables being so small that his legs didn't touch the floor as he sat in the custody office after his arrest. Grey seal pups on the beach at Horsey in Norfolk, as the pupping season draws to a close at one the UK's most important sites for the mammals. It emerged that the Venables family had suffered the same fate in another area. The petition, that now has 14,682 signatures, reads: "We want a Public Inquiry into the James Bulger murder case. Egypt. 'It's always our family that gets the blame,' Robert said to police after he was arrested for James's murder. The bleached houses were peppered with burglar alarms, the shabby ones did not look worth the trouble. Jon had to be pulled off the boy, who had gone red in the face, by a teacher who described the incident as the worst case of school violence she had witnessed. as he was known in court - Jon Venables. To be absolutely accurate, she had only one illusion. Ann denied the physical abuse, but later admitted to being cruel to the boys at times. gk. We still think the same of him as we always have. It was when Jon turned seven that Susan and the children had relocated to Norris Green, one of Liverpools larger, more reputable areas. what is the bite force of a baboon. During the Bulger investigation, police checked the details of 50 videos Mr Venables had hired in recent months. Seeing at first hand the pain of a family who have lost a toddler to an act of brutal violence is almost unbearably moving. Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. "We are committed to driving sustainability in the leather industry, through the commitment of. She was a woman as large in personality and physique as the burdens she carried. ", Her husband, Neil, said: "If you had a league table of children, you would put him at the bottom of the list for anything like this.". He believes these were evil boys. Robert is not believed to have reoffended - Venables has been convicted twice since being set free. But he is not a murderer. INSIDE the court sat the two boys, dwarfed by the weight and majesty of the place. The family was put up in a hostel temporarily and later relocated by the social services. When social workers came round, they did so to see his sister and his brother, who had learning difficulties and was receiving special education. . Mrs Thompson said she was so often called to Walton Lane police station to retrieve her truanting son that they should have given her a job there. Neil had been laid off in the months prior, so the couple sold their home, and Neil moved back in with his father, before finally relocating to an apartment in Kirkdale. His mother was not so keen on the idea - they cost pounds 35 each. The case is doomed to be picked over by every faction within the caring professionals and politics. Join Facebook to connect with Susan Venables and others you may know. They were drawn to one another quickly. "I don't think we went wrong as parents at all. Architect Shahed Saleem in the Ramadan Pavilion 2023 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. And in Lower Lane police station when he was being questioned about the murder she had to be told that her harsh words were inhibiting him from confessing. The final scene takes place among the tracks of a fun-fair ghost train where the doll, which resembles an infant with spiky hair has his face slashed before he is cut to pieces by a ventilator fan. They were intent on killing. At the time Ann Thompson pleaded for her son to be left alone and revealed that she and her other children had been forced to move house nine times in eight years. She was living in secrecy but always felt that she was walking around with a huge sign: mother of Bulger killer, above her head. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. Lock him in it.'. A video still of James Bulger, aged 2 years old, being led away in the 'New Strand' shopping centre. He is one of those children that if you told him to put his hand in the fire, he would. You know, we just try and help him as best we can to try to come to terms with things. The week after he walked out the family's home burned down in an accidental fire. Unemployment levels were more than twice the national average in Walton. The hardliners in the police have a simpler explanation. "An awful mistake for 10 year olds is shoplifting not murdering a 2 year old FFS," another angry viewer tweeted. 'I sat away from him - he caused trouble,' Jon said. . A day later she would face much worse. The toddler's mum Denise Bulger was at the counter of a butchers in the Strand shopping centre in Bootle, Liverpool, on February 12, 1993, when she briefly let go of her son's hand to get some change from her purse. NEIL Venables was warned by friends not to let his son play with the other boy. The reaction prompted James' mum Denise Fergus to let supporters know she had nothing to do with the programme. The base of the dock floor at Preston Crown Court had to be raised 18 inches so each boy could see over it. Mr Venables said: "He wouldn't watch horror. Our feelings haven't changed towards him. Her family were dignified throughout, but on that day one of theBulgerfamily supporters allowed themselvesa loud 'YES' as the verdicts came in. On November 24, 1993, the two boys, by then aged 11, became the youngest defendants to be sentenced for murder in a British court. They deal with drugs, they deal with everything. In 2010, Meggie Atkinson, then children's commissioner for England, called for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 12 in light of the trial. . Then there were the separated parents, the poverty, the truanting, the videos. Big Bobby, like Anns father, was a violent alcoholic, who was easily crossed. When Robert was asked what his hobby was he did not say trolls but 'skipping school'. Will you tell his Mum Im sorry?. Nature. When shop keepers asked what they were doing they would pretend they were waiting for their mum. They did. The couples first child, a son, had been born with a cleft pallet, and when Jon was born, much of the Venables focus was on getting their eldest son into speech therapy. Ann Thompson and Susan and Neil Venables didn't need to imagine. Some neighbours claim they saw the boy snaring birds into traps in the back yard of his home, while one local youth claimed he saw the boy pull the heads off live baby pigeons. When a police officer asked him why he didn't rescue James bleeding on the railway lines he replied: ' 'Cos blood stains, doesn't it, and then me mother would have to pay more money. Depressed, Ann began drinking heavily and was taking narcotics which caused her to hallucinate. Hope. Their. It was not until much later, when questioned as to his involvement in the death of James Bulger, that Roberts resentment towards the new baby became suddenly and painfully apparent. When Jon left home on the morning of Friday, February 12 he was happy because it was the last day of school before a week's holiday and he was going to take some pet gerbils home. "My heart really goes out to them. 'I don't know,' he replied. He was fearful, he was weak and he was provoked. We are proud to endorse the COP27 Leather Manifesto. It's high time they were investigated. Englands Ollie Chessum dives in to score his sides second try during the Guinness Six Nations match at Twickenham Stadium, London, Sam Smith arrives for the Brit Awards ceremony, A robin redbreast takes flight in Dublins botanic gardens. Such pleasantries were not for Robbie. He disliked Thunderbirds because of the puppets' 'stringy thingies'. 'He always seemed perfectly well behaved and I think he looked on me as some kind of grandma. Jon, who had the most trouble sleeping, appeared fearful of Susan, and was terrified, above all, of her condemnation. Her warnings arent being heeded, but 25 years on, I think she is probably right. Few will ever forget the chilling footage of two 10-year-old boys holding a toddler's hand as they led him to his death. Finally, in 1988, while on a family vacation, the breaking point came, when Big Bobby, then thirty-four, began an adulterous relationship with a friend and neighbor in her fifties. His body was found two days later on a railway line. He's a good reader if he's interested in it. The details of Jamess death were sickening. Few had the patience to be friends with him, only his younger brother and a couple of lads who lived nearby. Robert had eaten too many and felt sick. Her husband came back to Walton now and again to see his mother, but he never came to see the boys. In the last few years she stopped drinking in the Top House and tried to keep things together. The breaking point came when Jon was suspended from Broad Square after attempting to choke a classmate with a twelve-inch wooden ruler. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? See today's front and back pages, download the newspaper, order back issues and use the historic Daily Express newspaper archive. I couldnt make any sense of it, Robert later recalled, desolately, when asked about his fathers unexpected departure. I didnt connect the dots until much later on. Hes your son., Unhappily, it was during this critical time that Ann became pregnant with her seventh child, the product of another failed relationship. Any anxiety or animosity he might have felt was manifested largely through his school-aged thumb-sucking, a habit which elicited titters and taunts from the neighborhood children. These are the words of an officer who was in the police station when DCI Geoff MacDonald of Merseyside Police broke the news to Denise that James was dead. Teachers later reported that whereas the boys were manageable when separated, together their behavior worsened dramatically. That's the thing that upsets me because obviously where I was standing poor little James must have been not. Susan opted to remove him from the school then, and some months later, she reenrolled him in St. Marys in Walton. The boys, by now lacking any sense of guidance within the home, took to the streets, robbing, truanting, and some of them experimenting with drugs. Susan Venable - we found 141 people search records: 55 CVs and social profiles with photos, 50 addresses & phone numbers, 1 real estate objects, 6 Susan Venable's cars, 2 companies. I would say he was provoked. He said he was frightened of Robert's older brother. They didnt kill him in an accident it was premeditated and they tortured that poor baby. The family was already exhaustingly overextended, and Robert, being the fifth edition, was quick to pick up on the coping mechanisms needed to survive in a life of unremitting chaos and enmity. Ann tried to discourage this by hiding his shoes, or by taking him down to the Walton Lane police station and having the officer on duty frighten him into compliance, but to no avail. Recently, I dug out my old notebooks of the trial and my handwriting during the verdicts says it all. In the mean time, Susan, finding her new living conditions insufferable, soon decided to move back in with Neil until she could find another place of her own. Neil Venables, 40, said he felt "just devastated, thinking of that little boy'. Between January and the day of the murder Robert had absconded 37 half days out of a possible 60 . A parole board ruled that Thompson and Venables were no longer a threat. All information on this page is true to my knowledge, and is not intended to diminish or justify either boys actions in any way whatsoever. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? Venables, who was said to have been subjected to regular beatings by his mother Susan, titled the drawing 'My Dads house'. We will never be able to do the fun things any more . "One mystery surrounding the murder of James Bulger case is why the 'experts' insisted that Jon Venables was rehabilitated. The James Bulger murder View gallery Venables was born on August 12, 1982. I just think of James and his Dad and about all that fun with his little boy, like I had with Jon.". This would have made little Robert the target of the fourth Thompson brother, who, in less than a years time, had confessed to arson, tried to stab his elder brother in a fit of rage, and had allegedly committed a lewd act against two small children (this incident was overlooked due to lack of evidence; however, because it was always considered a likely possibility that little Robert had been the victim of sexual abuse himself, and since Robert reportedly confirmed this years later, this occurrence involving his elder brother might be thought particularly revealing). Get out and get into Dyson Hall children's centre, the only residential care school in the country just outside Liverpool. ', A psychoanalyst and child psychotherapist comes up with yet another possible explanation. From their point of view it makes perfect sense. Jon Venables said the class teacher tried to entice Robert by offering him a prize for a week's continual attendance - he did, but the prize never came. I said no. The Radio Merseyside newsroom, where I was working at the time, was full and everyone was on this story one way or another. ROBERT had a reputation in the neighbourhood for being a troublemaker. In a 1993 interview, published in the Guardian newspaper just one day after Robert was convicted of the murder of James Bulger, Ann Thompson was quick to place fault on the neighborhood and the surrounding authorities, who she felt had failed both her and her sons. ", Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. DAVID James Smith, who visited Mrs Thompson at one of her secret homes, reveals that it was a sad existence. I remember watching her then on TV, her sobbing plea for information and thinking how much guts it must have taken to get up that day and face a roomful of journalists and photographers. Counsel for the prosecution, Richard Henriques QC, made it clear all three elements needed to be proved for a murder conviction. Sitting in the new class was a chubby boy with a cherub's face - Robert Thompson. One neighbour said she always let him into her home whenever his mother was out. The attitude when you live where we live is that you have to be tough or else you dont survive, she said. They knew what they were doing," another wrote. Fiction Writing. The couple fought frequently as to their eldest sons troubles, which they later learned included mild learning difficulties, and Susan, at times becoming so exasperated by the situation, began to resent her sons presence. Their age was hard to gauge from the CCTV images, so just when you imagined you couldnt be more shocked by this story, it emerged the two accused were just 10-years-old. IN A letter to her son written soon after he was sentenced, Ann Thompson wrote: no matter what you did or didnt do, Im your mother and I will stay with you no matter what happens.. Grainy CCTV footage later showed the innocent toddler being led away by Venables and Thompson, who marched the little boy through the streets of Bootle for two miles - a walk that would have taken hours given his size. The end of the court case was not the end of course. He started with Liverpool, but by the time of the murder he had switched to Blackburn Rovers. Grainy CCTV footage shows them walking James away from the Strand . She said that Jon was always "loving, caring, thoughtful and considerate . Look at mine. After a while the 10-year-olds began to charge - a tenner an interview. View the profiles of people named Susan Venables. Susan Venables is on Facebook. Could they have planned to do it in advance? The shock in the city was plain to see, but it wasn't just in Liverpool that people stared at the CCTV pictures of the boy holding James' hand, while another led the way to the exit of the shopping centre where a frantic Denise Bulger would have been desperately looking for her child. However, you will find some great articles which you can comment on right now in our Comment section. The experience gave Jon renewed confidence, and the second time they sagged off together he suggested it. Find out more, The latest offers and discount codes from popular brands on Telegraph Voucher Codes, As James Bulger killer Jon Venables is sent back to prison, Shelagh Fogarty writes about her experiences as a young reporter on the case at the time, James Bulger, aged 2 years old, being led away in the New Strand shopping centre in the Bootle area of Liverpool, Denise Bulger arrives at Preston Crown Couty on November 24 1993, Shelagh Fogarty was a young reporter at the time of the murder, The police van carrying Venables and Thompson arrives at Preston Crown Court, Sarah Ferguson exclusive: Meghan has made Harry very happy, 32 best gifts for her: top present ideas to buy for mother's day in 2023, Midlife women are being told to sit down and shut up and not just by men, Imogen Stubbs: Its become less and less acceptable to age, Cost of HRT set to be slashed in new prescription scheme, Magic Mike and the naked truth about male strippers, Inside the James Bulger files 25 years on. It is claimed that taxpayers could have to fork out another 250,000 to provide a new life when he is eventually released. Channel 5 is set to air a new two-part documentary that tells the definitive story of . "He tends to be a bit hyperactive so his concentration did go a bit, but apart from that he is quite bright, no worries.". Please review our, You need to be a subscriber to join the conversation. Mr Venables said it had never crossed their minds that the video pictures from the security cameras in the shopping centre from which James went missing showed their own son. He was pale in complexion and had watery brown, listless eyes. Susan Venabless bent body shrank deeper into itself. she said. Superintendent Albert Kirby, who headed the investigation, doesn't believe in the under-belly of Liverpool nonsense or stuff about the disintegration of modern society, the collapse of the nineties cities. Take him home, the officer would say to her. Usually, they were slung out. 2023 BBC. I know how I feel as a mother. The other shops in the area were also armoured with mesh, including the Red Garden chipper where Robert used to pop in with his brothers most nights for a 25p bag of chips. 'I couldn't be arsed talking about them,' said one. He was fearful of the other boy. Those who knew him well said he was a very emotional child, prone to mood swings. Following the arrest of their sons it was reported that the mothers of the boys had been attacked and vilified in. Meanwhile, Thompson has not re-offended since his release, and is believed to be in a long-term relationship with a man who knows who he really is. They saw it with their eyes. Forlorn hope, though. In quest of companionship, he occasionally bullied his younger brother into truanting with him, and, in an effort to impress his peers, frequently boasted of his late-night exploits on the railway line, but failed to attract much attention. "He is easily led. The detective explained how, before she left, she soothed him, told him his parents would love him whatever he told the police, reminding him that Denise neededto know what had happened to her baby. It seems likely that he was bullied. What doing well means is anybodys guess. his mother was told that it was important that she stayed in his life and stood by him. But I still kept him in if he was naughty or anything like that.'. He had left her to bring up six children alone. Money, or his family's lack of it, preyed on his mind. this weekend for breaching the terms of his early release, the parents of both the Bulger killers continue to stand by them. He has had more love and attention than a lot of children I know. Denise was in court that day. Teachers hold placards as they shout slogans while taking part in a protest organised in Manchester as part of a national strike day. It was to be an adult trial, both boys appearing every day in the full gaze of whoever was in that room, but neither giving evidence directly to the court. Superintendent Kirby is a religious man. We have found 88 people in the UK with the name Susan Venables. The phone-in programme, as ever, was a place to turn to try to find reasons - evil, poverty, neglect, possessed anything to explain what felt inexplicable. His mother especially has been a tower of strength, says the source. "What he's done is wrong so he needs to be punished. His mother, Susan, attributed this behavior with peer pressure and hyperactivity, and put him on a special diet, though it did nothing to quell his frequent emotional outbursts. Venables, who was released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years for the murder of two-year-old James, was returned to prison last November after he was caught with the pictures. Yet, even while Susan admitted to being under huge emotional strain on a daily basis, the couple later denied that her constant hysterics would have encroached on Jon in any way, considering he was still in infancy at the time. They hid his body under bricks so that the first train to come along cut his body in two, but he was already dead before this happened. A maudlin ballad about Liverpool was playing in the back- ground and she was cooking the dish known as Scouse. At the end of the street a mesh wire frame coverered the window of the money lenders. On one occasion one of Anns sons let his real name slip at school and they had to move almost at once, says. Three days later his body was found, and three days after that a tip-off came from a shopkeeper who had seen two boys playing truant on the day James went missing and gave police two names - Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. In court, he hid his face again. It was a sign of such restlessness that he was unable to hang on to a football team for long - he kept shifting his allegiance like a floating voter. I'm bringing up on my own but if I went round and screwed every warehouse my children would have everything too.'. S. Susan venables. I just burst into tears because you just knew what that meanther heart was broken. Toddler James Bulger disappeared on February 12 1993. 'I didn't know it would be like this,' Mr Venables said with hindsight. I wonder how many parents looked at their sons of a similar age that week, sure in the knowledge their own children could never be so wicked, but asked themselves anyway "what would I do if?". TWO BOYS. The citys worst instincts produced the wrongful hounding of a family whose sons people decided were responsible.
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