This time, curiosity took the upper hand: 'I wanted to see what it was like,' he said. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter', Why half of India's urban women stay at home. 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. The days James was abducted, February 12 1993, I was a young reporter in my home city of Liverpool. 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. He used to be bullied by other children for being so behind, and would return home at night visibly upset. I'm bringing up on my own but if I went round and screwed every warehouse my children would have everything too.'. In court, he hid his face again. On Sundays he used to watch Thunderbirds. Both of them struggled at school and had been lumped into the year below their age. 'It was good. Susan was known as the town " whore". The primary concern among the faculty was Roberts growing amount of absences. And there were rewards for breaking rules. Join Facebook to connect with Susan Venables and others you may know. He gets upset. 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. He is one of those children that if you told him to put his hand in the fire, he would. He was jailed for two years before being granted parole again in July 2013. There was a pattern of bullying, with the older boys picking on their younger brothers down the line. March 10, 2021 - 20:29 GMT Eve Crosbie. But his comment sparked anger from viewers. When Robert was asked what his hobby was he did not say trolls but 'skipping school'. The couple, who are living together again after a partial separation, said their feelings towards Jon had not changed despite the terrible crime. 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. He always had plenty of friends. Extraordinarily, she even shouted up to the railway tracks at Walton where she knew Robert had a den. 2023 BBC. Twenty-five years on, Im still prone to hot tears at the memory of it all and I do question the trial. They saw it with their eyes. Thousands of members of Unison, Unite and the GMB unions are set to walk out across England and Wales on Monday as part of continued industrial action in the health service, Performers taking part in a parade involving costumes, lion dances and floats, during Chinese New Year celebrations in London, Everton fans hold up banners protesting against the board of directors during their Premier League match against West Ham at the London Stadium, A pair of swans fly over a frozen pond in Bushy Park in London, People take part in a demonstration in support of trans rights outside the UK Government Office in Edinburgh, A member of the Royal College of Nursing holds their dog whilst on the picket line outside Kings College Hospital in London, as nurses take industrial action over pay, The scene on the A39 Quantock Road in Bridgwater after a double-decker bus overturned in a crash involving a motorcycle, A man walks dogs in snowy conditions in a park in Hexham. He was in great distress' And what about the little, innocent boy he killed??! His mates called him a girl because whenever there was something on his mind he sucked his thumb. Witness after witness who had seen them, or stopped and asked them what was going on, took the stand. . The bleached houses were peppered with burglar alarms, the shabby ones did not look worth the trouble. Teachers hold placards as they shout slogans while taking part in a protest organised in Manchester as part of a national strike day. Everton was his team. However, given that the tension in the household was persistent throughout the most crucial of Jons formative years, the belief that he had moved through the ordeal entirely unaffected is questionable. ", 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.". Lock him in it.'. Big Bobby, like Anns father, was a violent alcoholic, who was easily crossed. He was fearful, he was weak and he was provoked," she said. He began telling his father that he believed his parents loved his brother and sister more than they did him, and, at one point, implored his father to send him to school with his siblings. 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. Jon's first year after he was moved was relatively successful. this weekend for breaching the terms of his early release, the parents of both the Bulger killers continue to stand by them. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Parents of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson talk about their sons, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Thompson was inscrutable in the dock as we heard his voice for the first time. Susan Venabless bent body shrank deeper into itself. Every day the public gallery was packed with students, pensioners, mothers, teenagers, all drawn to the courtroom spectacle as to a TV soap. I cant believe people find excuses for these murderers. "We are committed to driving sustainability in the leather industry, through the commitment of. sons, were settled in council houses within easy reach of the institutions where their sons were being held. He stayed away from school so often the local police called him a professional truant. The boys lived off chips. Shortly after the breakup, an accidental fire destroyed the Thompsons home, leaving Ann homeless, jobless, and with little money to support her kids. They went on family outings together, slept together, and when Susan did find a place, virtually coexisted between the two homes. 'In my opinion he was victimised. When you have got people in the area threatening to blow your kneecaps off every moment of the daythats just the way they are. ', They sagged off in the afternoon and walked around the shops in County Road, near Walton. The mayor of Preston accused them of being sick ghouls, but still they came, queuing up for tickets two hours before proceedings began. Fiction Writing. His parents, Susan and Neil, accompanied him during the interview process. Robert passed this down the line bullying his eight-year-old brother into playing truant. He was always getting prizes for maths at school. The haunting words of Jon Venables' parents only interview have resurfaced, twenty five years after he killed tot Jamie Bulger. His father, thin and balding, had a much gentler edge. Jon Venables is demonstrably no such thing. The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. cl gz. How can people defend their actions .#TheBulgerKillers.". "Contrary to what the papers will tell you, he is not a little urchin boy. Jon continued to attend Broad Square, where children of the neighborhood openly mocked and poked fun at his siblings, calling them backward. Jon was also an easy target due to a squint in his eye. Following the arrest of their sons it was reported that the mothers of the boys had been attacked and vilified in. Just something to do.'. Read about our approach to external linking. 'They were just your average scruff - like the rest of us.'. Susan Venables Facebook: susan.venables.9 Lives in Mellor, Blackburn With Darwen, . 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. It was their sons picked up by detectives. A smell of bleach lingered on some of the tiled steps that led up to the front doors. They said their son met Robert Thompson in September 1991, when Jon was transferred from another school. The breaking point came when Jon was suspended from Broad Square after attempting to choke a classmate with a twelve-inch wooden ruler. His mother, Susan, attributed this behavior with peer pressure and hyperactivity, and put him on a special diet, though it did nothing to quell his frequent emotional outbursts. Not their punishmentand exclusion from society for the rest of their childhood. She claimed, however, that she was completely unaware of Jons erratic behaviors at school, had never seen any evidence to support them (such as cuts on his arms or holes in his socks), and dismissed the possibility that many of the occurrences cited by the teacher had ever taken place. He wanted a Rovers strip for his birthday present. According to the teacher, Jon would rock back and forth in his desk, making strange noises (this behavior was later speculated to be Jons jealous attempt to emulate his elder brother, in order to receive the same special attention), bang his head on the desk or walls repeatedly, glue bits of paper all over his face, wedge himself in between desks, throw himself on the ground, throw chairs across the corridor, rip projects off the classroom walls, cut holes in his socks, and intentionally cut himself with scissors. Then they would hide their school satchels under a subway and set off on their adventure. Eventually, Bobby walked out on his family, but not before beating his wife one final time. Once he stole decorating borders from a DIY shop which he discarded at regular intervals to mark his way home. A maudlin ballad about Liverpool was playing in the back- ground and she was cooking the dish known as Scouse. Less thanfive hours laterthe verdicts were in. 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. He wore his dark hair short, almost a crew cut, which accentuated his ample forehead and blunt nose. NEIL Venables was warned by friends not to let his son play with the other boy. "Youngsters are usually tried in a youth court, [Thompson and Venables] were tried in an adult court. Few had the patience to be friends with him, only his younger brother and a couple of lads who lived nearby. Between January and the day of the murder Robert had absconded 37 half days out of a possible 60 . sp. Jon was afraid of her. His grip was so strong that it took two people to pry Jon off of the boy. Everyone called him Chubby, because of his round, cherub's face. WALTON, where they both lived, is, in the jargon of planning, an inner-city urban priority area; neither the best nor the worst the city has to offer. The Swedes, French, Germans, Canadian and Americans had all come to gaze at Liverpool's child killers. "On the other hand, you are looking at him and you are saying 'Well, I know why - because he is so weak'. His body, defiled and broken in two by a train, two miles from where hed been taken, was foundtwo days later. 'When you have got people in the area threatening to blow your kneecaps off every moment of the day - that's just the way they are. He was fearful of the other boy. Susan and neil venables. 'I can't read hard words,' he said. Constantly restless, his workbooks were empty, and he would often be denied recess because he was so far behind. 'America is the land of shopping malls. 'I didn't know it would be like this,' Mr Venables said with hindsight. "One mystery surrounding the murder of James Bulger case is why the 'experts' insisted that Jon Venables was rehabilitated. A sudden pause in the tapes and one of the officers appeared in person to describe how he asked Neil and Susan Venables to leave the room because he thought Jon wanted to tell him something. Both were banned from ever returning to Liverpool and given new identities at a reported cost of 1.5million. "It is hard to take in really. qu fy. . 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. 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). Venables parents were divorced but still lived within a stones throw of one another and were both involved in their sons upbringing. On one occasion, he said, Robert ran off down the street laughing, "You can't catch me". Apart from Jon's incident with the ruler, there had been no record of previous violence. 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. Meanwhile, A petition demanding a public inquiry into James Bulger's murder case has got nearly 15,000 signatures in one day. Most people would regard such sentiments as having come rather late in the day and certainly too late to save poor James. 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. Join Facebook to connect with Susan Venables and others you may know. Click here to find personal data about Susan Venables including phone numbers, addresses, directorships, electoral roll information, related property prices and other useful information. 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 documentary on the James Bulger murder case sparked anger after viewers criticised the Channel 4 show for "sympathising" with the toddler's killers. portrayed him as the leader and evil one, says James Smith. We still think the same of him as we always have. The old wood panelled courtroom is small. "'It wasnt fair to interview him. As a new documentary is set to air on ITV, the haunting words of Jon Venables' parents have resurfaced. 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. 'I don't know,' he replied. 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. 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. He would often have to stay in class at break times to catch up. Yes, these things are important, but trust. So he came home. Susan Venable - we found 141 people search records: 55 CVs and social profiles with photos, 50 addresses & phone numbers, 1 real estate objects, 6 Susan Venable's cars, 2 companies. Another added: "An awful mistake??!! yet, as Venables is back behind bars. It emerged that the Venables family had suffered the same fate in another area. 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?". Although Susan couldnt recall any dramatic change in Jons behavior, his teachers there expressed some concern that Jon had become upset and difficult following the separation. He would steal objects that he neither needed nor wanted, then chuck them away in the street. I would say he was provoked. I have cried for JamesBulgermany times, so God only knows the tears his parents and family have shed. His mother, Susan, attributed this behavior with peer pressure and hyperactivity, and put him on a special diet, though it did nothing to quell his frequent emotional outbursts. He has never really been what you would call a sagger off school (a truant). Im bringing them up on my own, but if I went round and screwed every warehouse, my kids would have everything, too. Even so, while Roberts community was rough, his home life was perhaps worse, and could hardly be considered a refuge for the boy. Sandra Gotheridge. The citys worst instincts produced the wrongful hounding of a family whose sons people decided were responsible. Drivers have been warned to leave extra time for their Monday morning commute due to icy roads during rush hour, following a weekend of wintry weather. Other parents came in to complain about attention seeking. 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. David James Smith, who wrote a book about the Bulger case, The Sleep Of Reason, and stayed in touch with Ann Thompson afterwards. The hardliners in the police have a simpler explanation. 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. Money was always a struggle, and she got through the first years drinking in Higson's Top House off St Mary's Lane. From their point of view it makes perfect sense. 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. This would have been at about 5.30pm - just the time the boys were about to begin killing Jamie. One woman asked how James had injured his forehead. After a while the 10-year-olds began to charge - a tenner an interview. 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. James' mother Denise believes they should have remained in jail for life and has tirelessly campaigned against their rights to anonymity. Still, despite being clearly intimidated by him, Roberts brother appeared to share a strangely intimate bond with him. 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'.". . After a while the boys became used to it. 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. During the Bulger investigation, police checked the details of 50 videos Mr Venables had hired in recent months. Nature. Boy A - Robert Thompson - was the shorter and more rounded of the two. For me, though, it is Susan and Neil Venables who stay most in my memory of that day. She was paranoid about being discovered. She also had to stay strong for the remaining children. Ironically, the relationship between mother and son improved when he, was behind bars. He has been educated. We still think the same of him as we always have. At the trialnine months laterI would learn that Robert Thompson had been among those people. We still dont know why. 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. I am providing this page for those who are interested in learning more about the lives of these boys prior to their offense. As his killers began their sentences, such was the revulsion that it was already clear their families could not. In Jon's case, 'hyperactivity' went beyond mere fidgeting into outbursts of sudden anger and violence. There, he is terrorising a girl. 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. In March 2010, Venables was recalled to prison for downloading and distributing more than 100 images of child abuse. In some families this was the third generation to be unemployed. They deal with drugs, they deal with everything. Trauma? Best of all, they would spend time on the Walton railway line where Robert had built a den close to the bridge. But curiosity drew him towards Robert in equal measure. Jon, who had the most trouble sleeping, appeared fearful of Susan, and was terrified, above all, of her condemnation. The toddler's mum Denise Bulger was at the counter of a butchers in the Strand shopping centre in Bootle, Liverpool, on February 12, 1993, when she briefly let go of her son's hand to get some change from her purse. Their parents entered the courtroom; The Venables arrived together, Ann Thompson came with supporters but no sign of Robert's father. 'It was very dark and I shouted down, shouted his name. He was fearful of the other boy. I thought he was all right, Jon said of Robert during his police interviews. ", 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.". But. I barely need to refer to my notes to remember in great detail the events that would dominate British news for years. "I don't think we went wrong as parents at all. They deal with drugs, they deal with everything. I didnt, did I? she said to Neil during their interview with Gitta Sereny. She said that Jon was always "loving, caring, thoughtful and considerate . The sunrises through the sea mist over the sculpture The Couple by Sean Henry at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea on the Northumberland coast. He would throw things at other children, cut himself deliberately with scissors and stick paper all over his face. They probably weren't out to kill someone, but they were probably out to ruin someone else's happiness. [3] [4] Thompson and Venables led Bulger away . 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. He started with Liverpool, but by the time of the murder he had switched to Blackburn Rovers. I wish we could turn the clocks back," Mrs Venablessaid. Susan Venables, mother of Jon - referred to throughout the trial as Boy B - blamed her son's 'weakness' for the murder of James Bulger, . 'I walked round for a couple of hours trying to find them. Born on August 13th, 1982, Jon was the middle child of Neil and Susan Venables. God knows how they must be feeling now.. She got her drinking under control and began giving her murderer son the attention he. Such pleasantries were not for Robbie. Forlorn hope, though. I made notes of the pathologists evidence. 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. There was almost total silence there apart from the sound of shoes on the ground. I just burst into tears because you just knew what that meanther heart was broken. The boys at Dyson Hall were the object of some envy among their mates because they were given tracksuits and trainers upon arrival and went on trips to Alton Towers. His body was found two days later on a railway line. At Preston Crown Court Thompsons mother Ann and Venables parents Neil and Sue sat side by side. 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. After a while he tried to commit suicide to get back in. 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. He was jailed for two years before being granted parole again in July 2013.. "BULL**** about 'two frightened kids whod made a terrible mistake' The tapes said they kept stoning him, even when he kept getting up. By now, Robert had also stepped comfortably into the role of the aggressor, and, following in the footsteps of his elder brothers, began tormenting his eight-year-old brother on a daily basis. Could they have planned to do it in advance? But his outbursts of anger grew worse and he was suspended for trying to throttle a boy with a ruler. By then, Robert and Jon had abducted James Bulger from the Strand and attempted to drown him in the nearby canal. 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. Good people asked the boys if they were lost or urged them to take "their baby brother" home as he cried for his mummy. They have never come out of hiding. In 2010, Meggie Atkinson, then children's commissioner for England, called for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 12 in light of the trial. The end of the court case was not the end of course. 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. 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. 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. But his progress took a nose dive in September 1991 when he was transferred into another class. 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. He didn't want to hurt James. 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. When he played truant he was scared she would come and find him. Her husband came back to Walton now and again to see his mother, but he never came to see the boys. She would arrive at the secure unit with food parcels and is said to be proud of his achievements since the crime.
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