He has had security with loving parents and a loving brother and sister.". . Both men were charged with a public order offence, but this was later dropped. [8] The boys were playing truant from their local primary school, which they did regularly. And Ann Thompson turning to alcohol. Jon's parents said they talked to their son about James after he was arrested, but had to stop. Jon Venables' psychiatrist, Dr. Susan Bailey, later reported that 'on visiting and revisiting the issue with Jon as a child, and now as an adolescent, he gives no account of any sexual element to the offence. [9] One of the boys threw the blue paint that they had shoplifted earlier into Bulger's left eye. Profile: Jon Venables - BBC News Jon's parents, who sat in court for most of the trial, said they grieved for the Bulgers. [10] One of the boys later revealed that they were planning to abduct a child, lead him to the busy road alongside the shopping centre, and push him into the oncoming traffic. "Just TV programmes and little things remind me of the good times we had together . Some of the grislier details of the murder of Jamie Bulger may indicate this here to a lesser degree, but while that was a working theory of Merseyside Police for a time, its not widely believed to be a motivator now. By contrast, Ann Thompson was demonised as a fat, drunk, uncaring mother. Once again, her absent husband was curiously left alone by the press. Jon Venables is not dead: Officials quash rumours about James [93] In January 2020, a 53-year-old woman from Ammanford in South Wales received a prison sentence of eight months, suspended for 15 months. They were tried as adults and made to stand in the dock away from their parents, while the judges and barristers wore full gowns and wigs. The boys joked about pushing Bulger into the canal. Susan Venables was the harsher of the two parents and it was of her that Jon was afraid. "He tends to be a bit hyperactive so his concentration did go a bit, but apart from that he is quite bright, no worries.". They were convicted after a 17-day trial and only then were their names and faces revealed. [39] A child psychiatrist, Eileen Vizard, who interviewed Thompson before the trial, was asked in court whether he would know the difference between right and wrong, that it was wrong to take a young child away from his mother, and that it was wrong to cause injury to a child. We will never be able to do the fun things any more . [67] An injunction was imposed on the media after the trial, preventing the publication of details about Thompson and Venables. Mrs Venables said: 'I think it was because the class group was too big for them to go in . He had been tortured - beaten with bricks and an iron bar. A spokesman commented: "There are many different images circulating online claiming to be of Venables or Thompson; potentially innocent individuals may be wrongly identified as being one of the two men and placed in danger. He was given a new name, a job and a flat on his release to try to ensure his security and give him an "ordinary" life. They placed batteries in Bulger's mouth[23] and may have inserted some into his anus, although none were found there. Was John Wayne Gacy assisted by accomplices? He is far from it. "[96] Venables began living independently in March 2002. [51], Some British tabloid newspapers claimed that the attack on Bulger was inspired by the film Child's Play 3, and campaigned for the rules on "video nasties" to be tightened. The Venables were by no means wealthy, but they were more financially comfortable than the Thompsons. The 10-year-old killers crimes shocked the United Kingdom. "I think my son's concentration wasn't the way it should have been, but he wasn't slow. The writer Gitta Sereny later reported that police were aghast at her for "constantly repairing her make-up" during this dreadful time. Jonathan Foster reports", "Drug dealer who found James Bulger's body jailed after crashing into family's car", "Death of James Bulger: Pt 4, Ten-Year-Old Suspects", "Death of James Bulger: Pt 5, Robert Denies, Jon Cries", "Liverpool Tries to Reconcile Murder and a Boy Next Door", "James Bulger documentary: Jon Venables so haunted by toddler victim he detected 'baby smell' on everything he wore, C5 show claims", "The secret meetings that set James's killers free", "Bulger ruling: If the defendants could not talk about their crime, how could they conduct a defence? Could the pair of them have sought out a younger boy in order to gain dominion over him? What was their family background like? A few days later, Venables and Thompson were arrested and charged - the youngest people to be accused of murder in the 20th Century. Three months later, he was found to be in possession of cocaine; he was subjected to a curfew. Neighbours told of pigeons having their heads shot off with an airgun, of rabbits being tied to railway lines, of dawn rollerbooting sessions. The moment was caught on CCTV and became the defining image of a horrific case. Vizard also said that Thompson was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after the attack on Bulger.
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