She said that Jon was always "loving, caring, thoughtful and considerate . They played a double act towards the children: his mother, Susan, aged 36, a sharp woman with a hawkish look, was the hard one. 'I think about little James and what he must have gone through, how they must feel. 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'.". The atmosphere in the courtroom was oppressive as the tension of a month was about to break. Robert's mother agreed with her son's assessment: 'Name one family in the area who would have a good word for us.'. Most people would regard such sentiments as having come rather late in the day and certainly too late to save poor James. She was a woman as large in personality and physique as the burdens she carried. His former wife would send their boys up the street to give their father the fingers through the bay windows of his mother's house. Her warnings arent being heeded, but 25 years on, I think she is probably right. Put bluntly, Jon Venables still gets a kick out of seeing small children suffer. The left will make play of social deprivation, unemployment, bad housing and general inner-city rot. 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. Only two people can answer the question, and even their ability is doubtful. The case is doomed to be picked over by every faction within the caring professionals and politics. 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. 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. But now and again. That's the thing that upsets me because obviously, where I was standing poor little James must have been not far . He was fearful of the other boy. On many occasions, Susan was observed physically and verbally assaulting Jon. From the start, Jon was drawn and repulsed by Robbie like opposite and equal poles of a magnet. Robert had eaten too many and felt sick. What they did was exceptionally unpleasant and the fact that a little boy ended up dead is not something the nation can easily forget. ROBERT had a reputation in the neighbourhood for being a troublemaker. The boys lived off chips. Constantly restless, his workbooks were empty, and he would often be denied recess because he was so far behind. Ms Truss has written a 4,000-word essay in todays Sunday Telegraph in which she stood by her plans to boost economic growth during her short tenure in No 10, Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker fails to stop team-mate Joel Matip (not pictured) from scoring an own goal during the Premier League match at Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, A member of the public lines the road into St Michaels on Wyre, Lancashire, with missing posters of Nicola Bulley, 45, as police continue their search for the missing woman who was last seen on the morning of Friday January 27, when she was spotted walking her dog on a footpath by the nearby River Wyre, Not your usual prisoner! Get out and get into Dyson Hall children's centre, the only residential care school in the country just outside Liverpool. 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. Who were their parents? Both parents hope was that he would make something of his life and eventually find some peace. Among the list were several horror films, including one video in which the police took special interest: Child's Play 3, a film which carries the line 'Children are consumer trainees'. The best instincts led hundreds, including me, to lay flowers a few days later at the site of James horrific end. How can people defend their actions .#TheBulgerKillers.". Mrs Venables said: 'I think it was because the class group was too big for them to go in . "BULL**** about 'two frightened kids whod made a terrible mistake' The tapes said they kept stoning him, even when he kept getting up. On the days he was at school he had a knack for stirring things up. 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. The Liverpool Echo boasted that their man had one of 'just 34 seats' allocated to the international press. 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. 'It was very dark and I shouted down, shouted his name. IN their interviews with the two boys, psychiatrists could find no clues to why the boys acted so violently. Two boys who forged a friendship out of breaking the rules. 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. sons, were settled in council houses within easy reach of the institutions where their sons were being held. Such a childish voice. But Robert was stuck in Walton with his older brothers and the baby. I couldnt make any sense of it, Robert later recalled, desolately, when asked about his fathers unexpected departure. Liked by susan venables. The two had an aberrant relationship with one another, in the sense that it was almost as though they had never divorced. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. In all, they played truant four times. The Radio Merseyside newsroom, where I was working at the time, was full and everyone was on this story one way or another. David James Smith, who wrote a book about the Bulger case, The Sleep Of Reason, and stayed in touch with Ann Thompson afterwards. Thompson & Venebales. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. Hyperactive children can't sit still all day,' Mrs Venables said. Left to his own devices Jon liked to spend his playtime in fairly sedentary ways. Tweet. Jon Venables is demonstrably no such thing. He would steal objects that he neither needed nor wanted, then chuck them away in the street. 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.. A torrent of questions erupted from the moment the grim news came out that James Bulger's body had been found on a railway line in Liverpool and the last people seen with him were two ten-year-olds, captured on grainy CCTV footage. 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. Toddler James Bulger disappeared on February 12 1993. That means he is currently 35-years-old. Gillespie, McNeilly, and Powell were sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years. One woman asked how James had injured his forehead. 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. release. I didnt connect the dots until much later on. They looked, moved, fidgeted, scratched, cried - even sucked their thumbs - just like any 11-year-olds. 'When the fisticuffs ended, they made friends.' The street in which Robert lived was not untypical: a row of terraced bay windowed houses that stretched from the railway line back towards the city. . They were in the Strand shopping centre in Bootle when the brother wandered off. "An awful mistake for 10 year olds is shoplifting not murdering a 2 year old FFS," another angry viewer tweeted. Not that he had any need to borrow his dad's. .". His mother especially has been a tower of strength, says the source. When he played truant he was scared she would come and find him. Born 10 days apart in August 1982 in Liverpool. 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. He did like to be liked, and loved to have friends, and he has got involved with the wrong person.". The beginnings of the friendship were inauspicious enough. He is far from it. 'If, in their own lives, they have had it extremely tough and been bullied and neglected and abused then they end up rapidly having to prove themselves to be extremely tough and invulnerable - a bit like Arnold Shwarzenegger in The Terminator. Wiping away tears, he went on: 'I feel for that family. After a while the 10-year-olds began to charge - a tenner an interview. It should certainly be moved up to 12; in some European countries it is 14," she said. View the profiles of people named Susan Venables. 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. Jon was slim in build and taller than Robert, just over five feet. One police officer described how Jon Venables was so small, his legs were swinging. 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). Murder of James Bulger. He was also given 'respite care' - six weekly weekend breaks to relieve the family of the burden of looking after him. Denise, James Bugler's mother, went with her brother's girlfriend Nicola to the Bootle Strand Shopping Centre and took James with her. They did. They deal with drugs, they deal with everything. 'They were just your average scruff - like the rest of us.'. gk. Half way through the 1992-1993 school year, Robert had already racked up nearly 50 unauthorized absences, and was falling significantly behind in his schoolwork. His mind was too restless to take up other hobbies for long. 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. The bird was taken to the vets where they are nursing it back to health. Lady Penelope was his favourite character because she was rich, followed by Brains with the glasses. 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. 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. The mayor of Preston accused them of being sick ghouls, but still they came, queuing up for tickets two hours before proceedings began. I just heard an almighty screech. When they finally came to a disused railway track near the police station, the murderous duo tortured James, throwing stones and bricks at the baby, and kicking and stamping on him before finally dropping a heavy iron bar on to the defenceless tot. They would sneak out during the morning break, hiding behind a wall before the coast was clear. At Preston Crown Court Thompsons mother Ann and Venables parents Neil and Sue sat side by side. His parents say he is 'broken-hearted'. ", 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.". kl. 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. Both boys had been held back a year, and they were put in the same class. "I think about little James and what he must have gone through, how they must feel. 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. For weeks, she stayed in bed, not bothering to tend to the children, and when she finally did reemerge, she readily admitted she drank from morning to night, but had stopped taking the pills. 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's high time they were investigated. Susan and neil venables. So, when he first began his association with classmate Jon Venables, in September 1992, Robert was happy to have finally befriended a boy like Jon, who could almost always be persuaded to follow in his lead. Thompson got better opportunities there than if hed been walking the streets in Walton, says the author. But curiosity drew him towards Robert in equal measure. 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. He used to be bullied by other children for being so behind, and would return home at night visibly upset. He is broken- hearted over it. Instead, she was involved in an ITV documentary with Sir Trevor McDonald that will air on Thursday. 'I thought he was all right,' said Boy B, as he was known in court - Jon Venables. Robert would give Jon presents of stolen objects: trolls, of course, toy terrapins, sweets. the street. They had much in common. . In court, he hid his face again. We are proud to endorse the COP27 Leather Manifesto. It was when Jon turned seven that Susan and the children had relocated to Norris Green, one of Liverpools larger, more reputable areas. 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. 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. 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. The couple, who are living together again after a partial separation, said their feelings towards Jon had not changed despite the terrible crime. 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. . And there were rewards for breaking rules. Aged 10, he was barely literate. What upsets me is I've no way of bringing him up for the rest of his young years so he's going to lose all his childhood. During that time, Susan felt as if she was trapped and overburdened, often taking her frustrations out on her husband, who believed it was her responsibility to take care of the children, and offered her little support in the way of childrearing. For a start, there were only three children, of whom Jon was the middle. 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. '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.'. He disliked Thunderbirds because of the puppets' 'stringy thingies'. Both Ann and the children knew well the sting of palm against flesh, and Bobby often used these beatings to ensure that his wife and children conformed. The days James was abducted, February 12 1993, I was a young reporter in my home city of Liverpool. 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?".