Not for long though. So he came home. Both of them struggled at school and had been lumped into the year below their age. I don't think so. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. He stayed away from school so often the local police called him a professional truant. Recently, I dug out my old notebooks of the trial and my handwriting during the verdicts says it all. "Throughout the conduct of the case there have been a number of issues that have been swept under the carpet. Although not officially entered into a witness protection programme they were given help by the authorities in finding new homes and taking on new identities. 'They were just your average scruff - like the rest of us.'. The taunts upset Jons already volatile temper, and he began coming home in increasingly low spirits and crying. His mind was too restless to take up other hobbies for long. ", Children accused of a crime are usually granted anonymity, but at the end of the trial the judge allowed both to be named, "because the public interest overrode the interest of the defendants.". But apart from his brother, Robert struggled to build friendships. The four who drove Suzanne to Romiley - Jean Powell (now Jean Gillespie), Bernadette McNeilly, Glyn Powell, and Anthony Dudson - were all found guilty of murder. He always had plenty of friends. eb. Thompson & Venebales. Grey Heron. Join Facebook to connect with Susan Venables and others you may know. But that is the common lot of thousands of 10-year-olds who have not turned into murderers. They were intent on killing. Witness after witness who had seen them, or stopped and asked them what was going on, took the stand. When shop keepers asked what they were doing they would pretend they were waiting for their mum. "On the other hand, you are looking at him and you are saying 'Well, I know why - because he is so weak'. Its beyond me," one viewer tweeted. Why would I want to kill him? he said, referring to the slain toddler. View the profiles of people named Susan Venables. The week after he walked out the family's home burned down in an accidental fire. He would steal objects that he neither needed nor wanted, then chuck them away in the street. I couldnt make any sense of it, Robert later recalled, desolately, when asked about his fathers unexpected departure. Parents who stand by James's killers - Express.co.uk Venables was a different creature. His parents say he is 'broken-hearted'. 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. On one occasion, he said, Robert ran off down the street laughing, "You can't catch me". This time, curiosity took the upper hand: 'I wanted to see what it was like,' he said. They had much in common. They pair was ordered to be detained at her majesty's pleasure - meaning indefinitely - but in 2001, a six-month review by the parole board found they were no longer a threat to public safety and they were released on life licence after serving just eight years. Real bottom of the gut stuff, like an animal. Susan Venables, mother of Jon - referred to throughout the trial as Boy B - blamed her son's 'weakness' for the murder of James Bulger, . That was in September 1991, 17 months before they killed James Bulger. Robert Thompson was born to Robert Sr. and Ann Thompson on the 23rd day of August 1982, in Liverpool, England. 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. His mother cared about him. But then, the whole of Robert's family was a bit like that - shunned, outcast, the butt of local criticism, and very well known to police. Most of the fun revolved around shoplifting - sweets, trolls, pepperami, tins of modelling paint, drinks, candles; anything, really. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Venables served seven years of a life sentence for the 1993 murder before he was freed in June 2001, aged 18. Robert passed this down the line bullying his eight-year-old brother into playing truant. Online Marketing For Your Business A day later she would face much worse. He said that on the day James was killed, when he went to the school in the afternoon to collect Jon he was told his son was missing. "In order that justice can be done, no further details are being released at this stage and the proceedings are subject to reporting restrictions.". The base of the dock floor at Preston Crown Court had to be raised 18 inches so each boy could see over it. 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. He had that odd combination of obsession with and disdain for possessions that is characteristic of children who have never enjoyed any of their own. She also had to stay strong for the remaining children. Ironically, the relationship between mother and son improved when he, was behind bars. ', A psychoanalyst and child psychotherapist comes up with yet another possible explanation. 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. Friday 12th February 1993. With Neil seldom in contact with Susan or the children during this time, Susan was forced to contend with Jons escalating troubles alone, sometimes taking her own frustrations out on the children. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? She said that Jon was always "loving, caring, thoughtful and considerate . She remained very frightened and felt that she and her son were the most hated people in the country. The appearance in court this week of Venables, now a 35-year-old man, on charges of possessing indecent images of children, was a jarring reminder that, still a quarter of a century on, his rehabilitation is more an ambition than a reality. Susan Venables's bent body shrank deeper into itself. The old wood panelled courtroom is small. Neighbors later reported that it wasnt uncommon for Robert to be seen wandering the streets of Walton after midnight, since he was always running off at night. You know, we just try and help him as best we can to try to come to terms with things. He has had Christmas presents. his killers were just 10 years old and attention focused on their upbringing and dysfunctional home life. Another time they were saucy and asked a sales girl if she stocked 'fishy nickers'. For his parents, the fact they were children was actually a cause for hope at that point. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (second left) and Scottish Secretary Alister Jack (second right) during a visit to the Port of Cromarty Firth, Invergordon, during a two day visit to Scotland to highlight the benefits of remaining in the United Kingdom as he seeks to counter Nicola Sturgeon's push for independence, King Charles reacts as he visits the Aboyne and Mid Deeside Community Shed in Scotland, There are only a handful of images of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, 'Jon was weak and was provoked': Parents of Jamie Bulger killers speak, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off & extra perks with Booking.com Genius Membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 10% off selected orders over 100 - eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. The pair was tried for the abduction and murder of James as adults owing to the fact they were over 10, which is legally deemed to be the age of criminal responsibility. After a while the boys became used to it. Money was always a struggle, and she got through the first years drinking in Higson's Top House off St Mary's Lane. Everyone called him Chubby, because of his round, cherub's face. The Liverpool Echo boasted that their man had one of 'just 34 seats' allocated to the international press. Constantly fighting and battering one another, and possibly, too, being hit by their emotionally drained mother, the Thompson brothers often looked scruffy, and, on more than one occasion, were seen bearing bruises and bite marks. James' mother Denise believes they should have remained in jail for life and has tirelessly campaigned against their rights to anonymity. They knew what they were doing," another wrote. Then there were the separated parents, the poverty, the truanting, the videos. ANN THOMPSON, the mother of Robert Thompson, child A, says her son is a thief, a liar, is devious and plays truant. One investigating police officer said: 'You could look into the eyes of Robert and knew you were looking at evil.' In some families this was the third generation to be unemployed. Left to his own devices Jon liked to spend his playtime in fairly sedentary ways. Venables and Thompson were seen on CCTV calmly leading the toddler out of the shopping centre by his hand. The shocking murder that shook the nation, Both Venables and Robert Thompson were 10 years-old when they tortured and killed 2 year-old James Bulger, Thompson and Venables were tried as adults, James Bulger, aged 2 years old, being led away in a shopping centre in Liverpool, Denise Fergus denied having anything to do with the Channel 4 documentary about her son, James Bulger's murder case could now be investigated, The petition is on nearly 15,000 signatures, James Bulger was just two when he was brutally murdered, He had been out shopping with his mum Denise, James was made to walk two miles before being left for dead on a disused rail line, Denise tirelessly campaigned to have their sentence increased, Denise once admitted she's lived 'in fear' since the trial. There, he is terrorising a girl. To be absolutely accurate, she had only one illusion. This would have put Jon in a particularly arduous position, as the couples only excelling child, and as author Gitta Sereny observed from her time spent with the Venables in 1994, forcing this middle child, Jon, for a long time, perhaps unconsciously, to compensate his mother for her two problem children, put an enormous weight of responsibility on this child virtually from the time he was born., As Susan struggled to manage her two disadvantaged children day to day, Neil was the familys breadwinner, working as a forklift driver. Thompson did what he often did, looked around, grabbing clumsily at his tongue. 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. He said he was frightened of Robert's older brother. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. In Crosbies corner shop Ian, the next oldest to Robert, was able to tot up the shopping in his mind before the cash register rang up the total. Neither gave evidence to the court, but were found guilty after an officer told how Venables admitted the murder, saying, "We did it. Scores more watched proceedings from a neighbouring office block which, for the duration of the trial, came under court jurisdiction. 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. 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. everyone blamed Thompson and. 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.. The fathers of both Robert and Jon were without work. He was fearful, he was weak and he was provoked. 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. ', They sagged off in the afternoon and walked around the shops in County Road, near Walton. Asked later if he could recall a time when his brother had exhibited any unusually aggressive tendencies, Roberts brother said no: Hes frightened of his own shadow. Nonetheless, in hindsight, its safe to assume that by 1993, ten-year-old Robert was swiftly approaching crisis point., Alarmingly, some of the neighboring children later claimed to have seen Robert behave cruelly towards animals, and pull the heads off of baby pigeons, although this was never unequivocally confirmed. Best of all, they would spend time on the Walton railway line where Robert had built a den close to the bridge. Denise Fergus is the same age as me, a fact I only registered when I met her for the first time two weeks ago. He has been educated. Sometimes Robert would sag off on his own, but it was more fun with a friend. 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. But now and again. She initially enrolled the two younger children in Broad Square Elementary, but it soon became clear that her daughter was struggling to keep up with the schools curriculum. Twenty-five years on, Im still prone to hot tears at the memory of it all and I do question the trial. On November 24, 1993, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables became the youngest persons to be convicted of murder in Britain in almost 250 years, when the pair, both eleven, was found guilty of the abduction and murder of two-year-old James Patrick Bulger. Denise was in court that day. INSIDE the court sat the two boys, dwarfed by the weight and majesty of the place. The best instincts led hundreds, including me, to lay flowers a few days later at the site of James horrific end. The bleached houses were peppered with burglar alarms, the shabby ones did not look worth the trouble. IN their interviews with the two boys, psychiatrists could find no clues to why the boys acted so violently. When Jon's parents gave a recent press interview, it was Mrs Venables who did most of the talking; the father just sat and cried. rk ye. I wasnt on duty that day, so the very beginnings of the story washed over me. You know, we just try and help him as best we can to try to come to terms with things. NEIL Venables was warned by friends not to let his son play with the other boy. Jobs were few and far between. Venables, who was said to have been subjected to regular beatings by his mother Susan, titled the drawing 'My Dads house'. . He was also given 'respite care' - six weekly weekend breaks to relieve the family of the burden of looking after him. Mr Venables said: "He wouldn't watch horror. The guilty verdicts came quickly - within five hours. wo. The left will make play of social deprivation, unemployment, bad housing and general inner-city rot. 'I couldn't hear anything,' she said. He liked to spend the weekend on the streets. Good people asked the boys if they were lost or urged them to take "their baby brother" home as he cried for his mummy. 'I think about little James and what he must have gone through, how they must feel. Trauma? Extraordinarily, she even shouted up to the railway tracks at Walton where she knew Robert had a den. They were in the Strand shopping centre in Bootle when the brother wandered off. But his progress took a nose dive in September 1991 when he was transferred into another class. A pathologist later said that there were so many injuries - 42 in total - that not one could be isolated as causing the little boy's fatal wound. This story has no borders,' NBC correspondent Denis Murphy said. After a while he tried to commit suicide to get back in. In the first press conference she gave the day after her son was taken, this 25-year-old woman struck me as a girl, a desperate, grief stricken girl whose tired swollen eyes told their own story. 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. 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. The end of the court case was not the end of course. In the business world, too many people think it's all about being hard, tough, ambitious, or having grit. 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. Our feelings haven't changed towards him. They sat just feet from me, perched on the edge of their wooden seat, smartly dressed and hunched in shame just below their son, Jon. 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. The only sign he was discomforted by hearing it was a near constant pulling of his tongue in his hands. View the profiles of people named Susan Venables. He says 'I know, Mum'. Venables parents were divorced but still lived within a stones throw of one another and were both involved in their sons upbringing. A video still of James Bulger, aged 2 years old, being led away in the 'New Strand' shopping centre. ', Mrs Thompson had no illusions about her son: 'He's a little liar, he's devious, he's a scally, he robs, he plays truant.' "Youngsters are usually tried in a youth court, [Thompson and Venables] were tried in an adult court. Less thanfive hours laterthe verdicts were in. Like Ann Thompson, however, both parents of Jon Venables rallied round their son and in preparationfor his release Mr Venables accom-panied him on trips to football matches. He had been quiet that weekend, they said, but they had thought that was because his mother had taken him to the police station on the Friday evening for playing truant. 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. She visited regularly and they would hold family anniversaries in the, place where he was held. Still, despite being clearly intimidated by him, Roberts brother appeared to share a strangely intimate bond with him. They passed 36 people, with one recalling how they urged the boys to take their 'little brother' home because he was 'crying for his mummy'. Join Facebook to connect with Susan Venables and others you may know. 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. Many of us had dined together most nights throughout the trial, mulling it all over but distracting ourselves, too. Read about our approach to external linking. fn ye vw la. David Sharrock, Maggie O'Kane, and Edward Pilkington look at the lives of the rebels who turned to killing, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. But just as he was entering the school gates he met Jon and they decided to sag off together for the fourth - and final - time. In Jon's case, 'hyperactivity' went beyond mere fidgeting into outbursts of sudden anger and violence. On many occasions, Susan was observed physically and verbally assaulting Jon. He was jailed for two years before being granted parole again in July 2013.. The beginnings of the friendship were inauspicious enough. As their sweet voices rang around the courtroom, Venables hid his face in his oversized blazer and cried. Jon's parents, who sat in court for most of the trial, said they grieved for the Bulgers. Susan Venable: 141 records - CVs, addresses, photos, cars - uFind.name In the last few years she stopped drinking in the Top House and tried to keep things together. Guilty of abducting and murdering James PatrickBulger. Susan Venables - People Directory - 192.com He had been stripped from the waist down,. That was in September 1991, 17 months before they killed James Bulger. Superintendent Kirby is a religious man. It would be a week before we heard their voices, in hours of taped police interviews, They stopped us all in our tracks. Constantly restless, his workbooks were empty, and he would often be denied recess because he was so far behind. Ironically, Jon was the child who caused his parents least anxiety. For me, though, it is Susan and Neil Venables who stay most in my memory of that day. The Rt Reverend Glyn Webster lights a candle in front of the newly restored Lady Chapel East Window at All Saints North Street in York, one of thirteen stained glass windows from the church undergoing conservation work at Barley Studio, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary Pat Cullen on the picket line outside Great Ormond Street Hospital in London during a strike by nurses and ambulance staff, Britains former prime minister Liz Truss leaves her home on February 5, 2023 in London, England. He was fearful of the other boy. Jon lived in terror of losing his mother's love, yet he was also terrified of her. He took a jar of paracetamol. In the years between Venabless first return to prison and this latest conviction he was deemed to be living successfully in the community, when in fact he was working out ways to dodge his internet ban and hiding a computer in his headboard in order to download abusive images of children, including what the judge described this week as serious crimes inflicted on male toddlers. The breaking point came when Jon was suspended from Broad Square after attempting to choke a classmate with a twelve-inch wooden ruler. The officer who questioned Venables took the stand and explained how he had asked Susan Venables to absent herself from the next session as her presence was now inhibiting her son from telling the truth. When the fisticuffs ended, impressed by each other's performance, they made friends. The couple was financially strained from the start, but Ann did what she could to make it work. James Bulgers mother Denise claims that she managed to track down Thompson six years ago, planning to confront him but instead stared at him from the opposite side of the street, full of rage but unable to act. Lock him in it.'. 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. Another added: "An awful mistake??!! 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. One day they stayed out until 10.30pm and Jon received a severe reprimand from his mother. She said an educational psychologist had diagnosed hyperactivity in her son, who was bullied at his previous school. As the paedophile killer pleaded guilty on Wednesday to possessing more than 1,000 indecent images of children and a "paedo manual" - his parents words on their son's involvement make disturbing reading. At the trialnine months laterI would learn that Robert Thompson had been among those people. We feel so sorry for him because he must be going through so much torment. ROBERT had a reputation in the neighbourhood for being a troublemaker. cl gz. 'The attitude when you live where we live is that you have to be tough or else you don't survive,' she said. She was living in secrecy but always felt that she was walking around with a huge sign: mother of Bulger killer, above her head. Big Bobby, like Anns father, was a violent alcoholic, who was easily crossed. Behind them eyes bore into them - from everyone on all sides, journalists, their parents, members of the public, and of course, theBulgerfamily. Security launched a search for James inside the centre and James' family searched for their son overnight. From the moment Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were convicted of the murder of James Bulger, their, families have been condemned to lives spent looking over their shoulders. The details of Jamess death were sickening. Last week the author Angela Phillips spoke of how the gentle son of the female friend of hers turned into a fascist skinhead: 'The boy his mother wanted him to become was not man enough for the world he was forced to inhabit. For she added: 'But he's not a murderer.'. Lady Penelope was his favourite character because she was rich, followed by Brains with the glasses. The case of James, a two-year-old who was snatched from a shopping centre in Bootle, Liverpool, in 1993, before being tortured and left to die, shocked the nation. Sorry, we are unable to accept comments about this article at the moment. On Sundays he used to watch Thunderbirds. By chance, the rest of Jon's family was driving past and spotted them. King Charles III shakes hands with Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky as he welcomes at Buckingham Palace, in London, ahead of an audience during his first visit to the UK since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 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. They fled the city, never to return. They played truant, they pinched sweets, they terrorised old ladies. I would say he was provoked. His mother was not so keen on the idea - they cost pounds 35 each. Mrs Venables said: 'I think it was because the class group was too big for them to go in . I just think of James and his Dad and about all that fun with his little boy, like I had with Jon.". Southern. 'I sat away from him - he caused trouble,' Jon said. As a grim portrait of abuse, drunkenness and neglect emerged, the hatred and loathing for Robert Thompson and Jon Venables was also turned on their parents. Weeping, she said: 'I wasn't actually on the railway track because there is a fence, but I went up the side.
1989 Pro Set Football Checklist,
Knife Crime Statistics London 2021,
Lots For Sale In White Birch Lakes Of Clare,
Uk Naric Overseas Equivalency Tables,
Articles S