That's the thing that upsets me because obviously, where I was standing poor little James must have been not far . . Weeping, she said: 'I wasn't actually on the railway track because there is a fence, but I went up the side. Aged 10, he was barely literate. See that cell. 'It was very dark and I shouted down, shouted his name. 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. David James Smith, who wrote a book about the Bulger case, The Sleep Of Reason, and stayed in touch with Ann Thompson afterwards. 'I can't read hard words,' he said. Two boys who forged a friendship out of breaking the rules. What happened to James Bulger? After a while the 10-year-olds began to charge - a tenner an interview. ', 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.' 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. Jon was also mad on computers. 'I couldn't hear anything,' she said. . Then between 1990 and 1991, Jons teachers recognized a dramatic change in the boys behavior, which was alarming enough for one of his teachers to begin keeping a daily log. It seems likely that he was bullied. Police respond to reporters of a swan being removed from the harbour by a drunk male before it being involved in a collision on Mutley Plain. 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. He didn't want to hurt James. Mrs Venables walked around the area for hours, searching for him. Once they went into a home decoration shop and hid under a pile of carpets. Sitting in the new class was a chubby boy with a cherub's face - Robert Thompson. He was fearful, he was weak and he was provoked," she said. His body was found two days later on a railway line. He frequented local cinemas and regularly hired videos for the night. susan venables - Director - Juju & Co | LinkedIn 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. The fathers of both Robert and Jon were without work. He has had security with loving parents and a loving brother and sister.". 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. The questioning was calm, steady, even playful at the beginning to try to get a sense the two boys really did know the difference between right and wrong. 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. His parents say he is 'broken-hearted'. Channel 5 is set to air a new two-part documentary that tells the definitive story of . wo. On November 24, 1993, the two boys, by then aged 11, became the youngest defendants to be sentenced for murder in a British court. He was always getting prizes for maths at school. Meanwhile Robert Thompson always regarded as the ringleader and the most likely of the murderous duo to fall by the wayside is said to be doing well. INSIDE the court sat the two boys, dwarfed by the weight and majesty of the place. Jon's parents, who sat in court for most of the trial, said they grieved for the Bulgers. One woman asked how James had injured his forehead. They would hang around the video shop in Walton Village where the shop girl was pleased to have their company. 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 played truant, they pinched sweets, they terrorised old ladies. The sunrises through the sea mist over the sculpture The Couple by Sean Henry at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea on the Northumberland coast. It is time to examine all this.". While both boys may have felt helpless and inferior in their own settings, together they were fearless, a portrait of machismo, each playing on the others strong points. Are they mad? 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. If I wanted to kill a baby, Id kill Id kill me own, wouldnt I?. His mother especially has been a tower of strength, says the source. sons, were settled in council houses within easy reach of the institutions where their sons were being held. At Radio City in Liverpool the calls were coming through from Australia, New Zealand and Canada. This time, curiosity took the upper hand: 'I wanted to see what it was like,' he said. 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. Mr Venables ran out of the car and grabbed him, while Robert ran off down the street laughing and shouting: 'You can't catch me.'. Susan Venables, now 53, suffered from severe depres-sion and struggled with her two other children, an older son and younger daughter, who suffered learning difficulties. '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. Susan Venables Profiles | Facebook 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'. The details of Jamess death were sickening. I dont think she saw a very happy future., The author says there was no contact with the Venables family after the trial as Mrs Thompson focused, her energy on supporting her son, refusing to accept he was a monster. 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. 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. 'We have never really been apart,' Mrs Venables said. From a distance Robert looked a sweet child. 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. I would get him something like a cartoon.". Ann, desperate to escape the physical and emotional torment of living with her drunken father, was married to Robert, Sr. in December 1971, on the day of her eighteenth birthday. In the business world, too many people think it's all about being hard, tough, ambitious, or having grit. In court, he hid his face again. Bulger killer had 'better life' after toddler murder - BBC News The left will make play of social deprivation, unemployment, bad housing and general inner-city rot. 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. Ann Thompson and Susan and Neil Venables didn't need to imagine. Haunting CCTV footage shows the pair leading the tiny, trusting boy . According to a legal source we spoke to this week, Jon Venables parents have sought to be a support for their son, despite the enormity of his crime. Once Robert shared with him a tin of Roses chocolates which he had poured surreptitiously into his coat pocket. The pattern of bullying among the brothers, which had been noted by the Head mistress of the boys school, appeared to descend down the line, with the eldest Thompson brother beating the one just below him in age, and that brother beating the brother below him, in turn. 'I sat away from him - he caused trouble,' Jon said. Just four years earlier, we had all covered the Hillsborough disaster and come together in grief. James Bulger's killers: Where are Robert Thompson and Jon Venables? has prompted a public outcry for an investigation into issues surrounding the case. When Robert was asked what his hobby was he did not say trolls but 'skipping school'. It was this empowering chemistry between them that some argued set into motion the life-altering events that would devastate a family, challenge a community, and rock a nations core in the disquieting months that followed. In March 2010, Venables was recalled to prison for downloading and distributing more than 100 images of child abuse. Money, or his family's lack of it, preyed on his mind. . Jon spent Sunday to Thursday with his mum and the rest of every week with his dad. 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. "Youngsters are usually tried in a youth court, [Thompson and Venables] were tried in an adult court. 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 during this time that Susan, having suffered from clinical depression for many years, had experienced what were later described as two traumatic incidences, both of which Jon would have witnessed. They played a double act towards the children: his mother, Susan, aged 36, a sharp woman with a hawkish look, was the hard one. At school Jon was considered bright enough, though he had trouble keeping up with lessons. The first time he asked Jon to play truant with him was last September, only weeks after they had become friends. Why would I want to kill him? he said, referring to the slain toddler. "One mystery surrounding the murder of James Bulger case is why the 'experts' insisted that Jon Venables was rehabilitated. I wish we could turn the clocks back," Mrs Venablessaid. Absence of a male role model is increasingly being explored - by both left and right - as one of the main reasons why today's boys and young men are going wrong; why 90 per cent of indictable offences are committed by men. 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. Venables and Thompson abducted, tortured and killed two-year-old James in Liverpool in 1993 when they were both aged just 10. We are proud to endorse the COP27 Leather Manifesto. sp. They were drawn to one another quickly. After a while the boys became used to it. For me, though, it is Susan and Neil Venables who stay most in my memory of that day. He carried books on wrestling and wildlife in his school bag. Less thanfive hours laterthe verdicts were in. . Both had a need to attract attention, which they achieved through a host of petty rebellions. I didnt connect the dots until much later on. Left to his own devices Jon liked to spend his playtime in fairly sedentary ways. We still think the same of him as we always have. 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. He was jailed for two years before being granted parole again in July 2013.. Hyperactive children can't sit still all day,' Mrs Venables said. On Sundays he used to watch Thunderbirds. A newspaper man from Detroit said it was because 'Liverpool is the Beatles and love, love, love. The Radio Merseyside newsroom, where I was working at the time, was full and everyone was on this story one way or another. "All he said when we've said 'Why didn't you run away?' They didnt kill him in an accident it was premeditated and they tortured that poor baby. 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. They did. From their point of view it makes perfect sense. They were sent home to their mother at one point, but after attempting suicide with overdoses, were placed back into care. This story has no borders,' NBC correspondent Denis Murphy said. Put bluntly, Jon Venables still gets a kick out of seeing small children suffer. But apart from his brother, Robert struggled to build friendships. Who knows. At 2:30 they went to the two-story shopping centre. Thompson and Venables, now both 27 years old, are among only four individuals in the UK whose crimes are so notorious that they have been given lifelong anonymity. We will never be able to do the fun things any more . He denied having had any films that were not mainstream, or that were pornographic, in the house. A day later she would face much worse. Thompson got better opportunities there than if hed been walking the streets in Walton, says the author. He was fearful of the other boy. Child killer Mary Bell and Maxine Carr, the former girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley, are the others. "In order that justice can be done, no further details are being released at this stage and the proceedings are subject to reporting restrictions.". But. He wore his dark hair short, almost a crew cut, which accentuated his ample forehead and blunt nose. On countless occasions, Bobby battered his wife, once causing her to miscarry, and his temper didnt stop at his wife.