Walton Village Financial Services would lend you pounds 300 for Christmas and demand a total of pounds 460 in repayment. They saw it with their eyes. Most of the fun revolved around shoplifting - sweets, trolls, pepperami, tins of modelling paint, drinks, candles; anything, really. Please review our, You need to be a subscriber to join the conversation. Tweet. The most startling moment of the trial came when, in lieu of giving evidence in person, the boys' taped interviews with police - recorded just after their arrest - were played in court. 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. his mother was told that it was important that she stayed in his life and stood by him. When social workers came round, they did so to see his sister and his brother, who had learning difficulties and was receiving special education. A newspaper man from Detroit said it was because 'Liverpool is the Beatles and love, love, love. The family was put up in a hostel temporarily and later relocated by the social services. Their seats were just below the raised dock where their sons would sit for the next three weeks, listening to a prosecution which aimed to prove not only that they killed James Bulger, but that they planned to, and that when they did they knew it to be wrong. and things like that is that he was frightened. Guilty of abducting and murdering James PatrickBulger. He said he was frightened of Robert's older brother. Susan seemed happy with the arrangement, although, for the children, this type of relationship would have been just one more confusing anomaly to cope with in the wake of an already confusing time in their young lives. But apart from his brother, Robert struggled to build friendships. Now we waited. What doing well means is anybodys guess. It should certainly be moved up to 12; in some European countries it is 14," she said. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 10, murdered him in cold blood. "All he said when we've said 'Why didn't you run away?' Mrs Venables has also said that she felt. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. The right will draw attention to the broken homes, the single parents, the persistent truancy. In all, they played truant four times. Scores more watched proceedings from a neighbouring office block which, for the duration of the trial, came under court jurisdiction. His father, Neil, an unemployed panel-beater, was separated from his mother but they lived only a mile apart, saw each other every other day, and took equal care of the children. I came back and then (Mrs Venables) went out. He believes these were evil boys. Still, despite being clearly intimidated by him, Roberts brother appeared to share a strangely intimate bond with him. "All he said when we've said 'Why didn't you run away?' 2023 BBC. MOST of the boys were bright. 'I can't read hard words,' he said. He carried books on wrestling and wildlife in his school bag. I wish we could turn the clocks back," Mrs Venablessaid. On Monday night's documentary, Robert Thompson's solicitor Dominic Lloyd said: "Many years after the trial a juror said 'we found them guilty of murder but we didn't have the option to find them guilty of being two very bewildered and frightened little boys who made an awful mistake and need a lot of help'.". Words with the drawing, full of spelling mistakes and grammatical. 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. A day later, when James still hadnt been found, it was clear from CCTV footage that he had been taken by children. TWO BOYS. 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. On Sundays he used to watch Thunderbirds. They looked, moved, fidgeted, scratched, cried - even sucked their thumbs - just like any 11-year-olds. 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. I barely need to refer to my notes to remember in great detail the events that would dominate British news for years. Behind them eyes bore into them - from everyone on all sides, journalists, their parents, members of the public, and of course, theBulgerfamily. The first Susan Venables knew they had stayed away from school was when she saw one of Jon's classmates on her way home with the gerbils. James mother Denise Fergus has been saying this for a long time, but still we hoped that the boy who savaged a tiny child to death could become a man safe to be in our midst. However, you will find some great articles which you can comment on right now in our Comment section. He had a Game Boy console and hankered after a Sega machine, and when they played truant he would head straight for the computer game corner of Tandy's or Dixons. Moments later, we were told, Jon Venables uttered the words, We did it. It seems likely that he was bullied. ", 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.". Facebook gives people the power. Ultimately, wanting to escape the havoc, most of the boys opted to leave home, and some were placed into voluntary care at Dysons Hall, a childrens home just outside of Liverpool. When you have got people in the area threatening to blow your kneecaps off every moment of the daythats just the way they are. 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. Neil explained to him that the school they attended was special, and that Jon wouldnt be accepted. If I wanted to kill a baby, Id kill Id kill me own, wouldnt I?. Another added: "An awful mistake??!! It's high time they were investigated. Jon Venables arrived at Walton St. Marys Church of England School a disrupted and attention-seeking boy, whose behavior was so bizarre at times that one of his teachers considered him to be emotionally unstable. 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. ", 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.". The left will make play of social deprivation, unemployment, bad housing and general inner-city rot. He wanted a Rovers strip for his birthday present. Mrs Venables said: 'I think it was because the class group was too big for them to go in . Those who knew him well said he was a very emotional child, prone to mood swings. 'In this state it is quite painful to see a normal relationship between mother and child. 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. 'America is the land of shopping malls. But they shouldn't have been tried in an adult court because they were still children. He has had Christmas presents. On one occasion, he said, Robert ran off down the street laughing, "You can't catch me". He is far from it. The Americans fed 1 1/2 minutes of the Jamie Bulger story into a 22-minute bulletin of national and international news. There was a pattern of bullying, with the older boys picking on their younger brothers down the line. Venables on the other hand was becoming increasingly agitated in the police interviews. Another time they were saucy and asked a sales girl if she stocked 'fishy nickers'. Robert is not believed to have reoffended - Venables has been convicted twice since being set free. The primary concern among the faculty was Roberts growing amount of absences. The breaking point came when Jon was suspended from Broad Square after attempting to choke a classmate with a twelve-inch wooden ruler. Their kids have got everything. 'I even went up to the railway line because I knew the other boy had a den up there and was on the railway nearly all the time.'. Striking members of the National Education Union (NEU) South East Region at a rally in Chichester, West Sussex, in a long-running dispute over pay, Members of the Welsh Guards replace their bearskin headress after giving three cheers during a St David's Day visit to the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards at Combermere Barracks in Windsor, Berkshire, Princess of Wales and Prince William take part in a spin class uring a visit to Aberavon Leisure and Fitness Center to meet local communities and hear about how sport and exercise can support mental health and wellbeing, in Port Talbot, Wales, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen during a press conference at the Guildhall in Windsor, Berkshire, following the announcement that they have struck a deal over the Northern Ireland Protocol, Homes sit close to the cliff edge at Hemsby in Norfolk, where the beach has been closed off because of significant erosion and the risk that homes could fall into the sea, Members of the Russian Democratic Society, a group of Russian citizens living in the UK, stage a protest outside the Russian embassy in London, to mark the one year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces enter 10 Downing Street, in London, after the National one minutes silence to mark one year since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech at the head office of the Co-Operative Group in Manchester, unveiling plans for a mission-led Labour government, with five national missions setting out his objectives for a Labour government if the party gains power at the next general election, Ukrainian soldiers pose with a Ukrainian flag next to a military vehicle at Bovington Camp in Dorset, Stunning colours before sunrise as people walk their dogs on Tynemouth Longsands beach in Tynemouth on the North east coast, Visitors observe Dippy the Diplodocus at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry, where the museum will be hosting the 26-metre long replica skeleton for the next three years, Flowers, and ribbons on a bridge over the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, where police recovered a body on Sunday, which was found by members of the public close to where Nicola Bulley disappeared on January 27, Protesters clash at a refugees welcome rally in Liverpool city centre, A Porsche 911 car is damaged by a fallen tree in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, as a result of storm Otto. 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. "BULL**** about 'two frightened kids whod made a terrible mistake' The tapes said they kept stoning him, even when he kept getting up. I made notes of the pathologists evidence. He would go to bed. 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. Ann Thompson and Susan and Neil Venables didn't need to imagine. Jon's parents said they talked to their son about James after he was arrested, but had to stop. But his outbursts of anger grew worse and he was suspended for trying to throttle a boy with a ruler. How can people defend their actions .#TheBulgerKillers.". 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. Some of the red brick houses were well-kept, others had torn net curtains and grubby windows. Reporters from around the world ended up in the drab streets of Walton, cadging interviews off any 10-year-old boys hanging around in the streets. 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. There is, like, a little paint factory. They fled the city, never to return. "In terms of knowing what the full consequences of your actions are, you are into older childhood or adolescence. She acknowledged her son had committed a terrible crime but claimed that her innocent younger children were being denied a proper education because of having to abandon their homes to escape attacks. How could two small boys savage and leave a toddler for dead? 'It's always our family that gets the blame,' Robert said to police after he was arrested for James's murder. 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. 'I walked round for a couple of hours trying to find them. The couple, who also have a 13- year-old son, who has learning difficulties, and a 9-year-old daughter, denied that Jon was bullied by his brother or that he watched violent horror films at home.
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