Decades of brutal murder again in prison: torture of young monsters caused endless horror

1993 February 12 Robert Thompson and John Venables of the Strand Mall in Merseyside, Merseyside, kidnapped a two-year-old boy named James Bulger, writes The Sun.

What happened after?

Mr. Thompson and Mr. Venables were only 10 years old at the time. Britain had not heard of murderers younger than them for 250 years.

Little James was disappointed in the villains when the boy’s mother visited a butcher shop in the bustling mall with a crowd of people.

The video camera captures a shot of a child holding hands, one of the clearest and most eloquent images that has helped to clarify the crime and solve the case that caused a great commotion throughout the country.

The would-be killers married the baby for about four kilometers, and 38 people were spotted on the road. Some of them caught the attention of children and even persuaded them.

Mr. Venables and Mr. Thompson explained to the people that the baby, who was obviously scared and tired, was a younger brother or that the child was missing, so they both took him to the nearest police station.

The students took James to the train tracks and began to torture, beat and sexually exploit him.

The children poured paint into the baby’s eyes, threw stones at him, hit bricks, and then left them on the rails for him to cross the train.

The assassins left the body of dead James on the rails. There he was found a couple of days later.

How was the investigation and the court?

The police officers, seeing images from a supermarket camera, initially thought that the criminals could be young people between 12 and 18 years old.

Phil Roberts, then head of the Merseyside Police Serious Crimes Division, remembers perfectly how it felt to see the footage.

“We think that the one leading the child by the hand is an adolescent, and the other one leading is perhaps 13 years old,” the official said. “The image captured by the camera was a surprise, as it became clear that the baby had been abducted.”

“We immediately started going through the records, looking for boys ages 12 to 18 who could identify with the event in some way. We called a few, but as soon as we started the survey, we realized they had nothing to do with the kidnapping. ”Said Ph. Roberts.

An inspection revealed that James’ body found on the train tracks was stained with blue paint. It was this detail that led investigators to J. Venables and R. Thompson.

“One of the officers was attracted to a report from a woman who knew Thompson and Venables,” said Ph. Roberts. – The information that James’s body had been stained with blue paint had already been made public at that time, and that woman claimed to have noticed stains of blue paint on the clothing of one of the students who committed the crime. He mentioned their names and added that those children were really naughty people. “

The names of the killers were not made public during the arrest, nor during the trial.

However, to enormous public outrage, both decades were tried in adult court and both were found guilty of murder.

The judge named the perpetrators and placed them in custody under a stricter regime, and also recommended a prison term of at least eight years.

How did the life of the freed killers unfold?

In June 2001, both murderers were released. They were given new fictitious identities.

In 2010, however, Venables found himself behind bars again. He was sentenced to two years in prison for sending and distributing obscene photographs of children.

He later returned to prison, again for images of child abuse.

In February 2018, J. Venables admitted to having instructions to incite pedophilia – sexual exploitation of minors.

The murderer with perverted cravings was found guilty when more than a thousand photographs of obscene children were found in his possession. He was later sentenced to 40 months in prison.

Information reached Old Baile (Supreme Criminal Court) that, after his arrest, Mr. Venables told the police that: “It is my fault. I humiliated people again. I gave in to the cravings. “

The man who became a monster in the eyes of the public is known to live in the north of England. His address is being kept secret and his name is not real: in 2013, when he was released from prison for the second time, he was issued new documents for the second time.

In July 2013, James’s father, Ralph Bulger, who was in great distress, warned: “J. Venables is and always has been a dangerous murderer and sex offender. No one will ever force you to change. He will always pose a threat to children and must be sentenced to life imprisonment. “

Mr. Bulger strongly condemned Mr. Venables for enjoying the images of tortured children and described the verdict for holding such material as mockery.

In February 2018, he said: “40 months is nothing, just a fun term. We feel like we are being ridiculed. We have been victims of their wicked behavior. We know very well what you can do: after all, a new victim is waiting. Why not prevent new crimes?

Mr. Bulger asked, among other things, that the name given to Mr. Venables be disclosed so that people know who he is up against and can protect themselves.

The father of the murdered child is convinced that guaranteeing Mr. Venables’ anonymity was a false step, and there is no place for that person in society.

During the 25th anniversary of her son’s death on Good Morning Britain, Bulger said: “Wouldn’t you like that person to live in your neighborhood? Personally, I would like him to separate from society, because only then would he know that he will no longer have children. “

Despite this, in 2019. March 4, the decision was made to allow Mr. Venables to continue to enjoy anonymity because, as reported by the judge, a fictitious identity is the protection of Mr. Venables against serious acts of violence.

In his request for disclosure of the identity of Mr. Venables, Mr. Bulger’s attorney stated that, in any event, certain information about the killer and his life was made public and posted online.

However, Andrew McFarlane, chairman of the Supreme Criminal Court’s Family Division, rejected the request to remove the killer’s anonymity, explaining that anonymity was granted to protect Venables from facing or even assassinating.

“My decision should not be construed in any way as an accusation of the applicants.” I am sincerely grateful for them, “said A. McFarlane.

“J. Venables’ cause of fame is known to be special, so we have to talk about a great possibility or even a probability that if his identity were known, he would face cruel and probably fatal consequences. “On the one hand, the case of J. Venables is exceptional, on the other hand, even in 2019 there is sufficient evidence that the removal of his anonymity would pose a great threat to him,” he added.

Actress Tina Malone, who starred in the series “Shameless” in March 2019, escaped from prison after confessing to violating the order protecting J. Venables.

Malone was sentenced to eight months in prison for posting a photo of the killer online. She also had to cover 10,000. British pounds (11.1 thousand euros) in court costs.

What did the mother say?

When Mr. Venables was found behind bars, Denise Fergus, the murdered boy’s mother, said: “Some experts say that Mr. Venables is a psychopath. I am convinced that they are right. “

“It’s hard to put into words how I feel every day so far,” Fergus told Mail on Sunday in January 2018. – After all, it was I who let go of my son’s hand, I was the only one who had to protect him . Do you know what I regret the most? That I turned to the left, not to the right. If she had turned right, she would have seen those kids leading James. After all, it happened only four minutes after he parted ways with me. I would have seen how confident she was, run by guys who planned to kill her. “

In his book I Let Him Go, Fergus, 50, remembers learning that Thompson had put flowers on the train tracks, the place where the body of the dead James was found.

“R. Thompson, her mother and two younger brothers lived in Walton, near the crime scene. An officer who came to arrest the boy, speaking with Thompson’s seven-year-old brother, said: “The brother knew about the murder. He really knew, and he told me, how he and Thompson got on the rails to lay flowers. ” When I found out, I was alarmed. I thought that even adults couldn’t learn like this after murder, so how could a child act in such a cynical way? ”Says the book.

Fergus wants all information known to officials about the sexual violence his son experienced prior to the murder to be made public.

“I want to find out the basis on which the parole commission decided to rehabilitate those children and if that commission was aware of James’ sexual abuse,” Fergus said.

The woman’s representative, Sean Sexton, made a request to the corresponding authority with 14 questions, but did not receive a response. The appeal, among other things, asks why experts did not heed Venables’s interest in child torture until his trial in 2010, when he was charged with distributing child pornography.