But at the age of 27, Venables finds himself back in the headlines and back behind bars having been jailed for two years after pleading guilty to charges of downloading and distributing indecent images of children. Ones well likely never fully understand or appreciate. [27], Thompson and Venables laid James Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, hoping that a train would hit him and his death would be ruled an accident. [91] On 31 January 2019, a man and a woman pleaded guilty to eight contempt of court offences at the High Court after they admitted to posting photos on social media that they claimed identified Venables; both received suspended prison sentences. [97] On 7 March, media reports said that he had been accused of child pornography offences. [88] On 14 July 2016, a woman from Margate in Kent was jailed for three years after sending Twitter messages to Bulger's mother, in which she posed as one of his killers, and as Bulger's ghost. In April 2011, in the aftermath of his 2010 imprisonment, these allegations were outlined in a Sunday Times Magazine article written by David James Smith, who had been following the Bulger case since the 1993 trial, and again later in a BBC documentary titled Jon Venables: What Went Wrong? The 10-year-old killers crimes shocked the United Kingdom. A pattern of bruising on Bulger's right cheek matched the features of the upper part of a shoe worn by Thompson; a paint mark in the toecap of one of Venables's shoes indicated he must have used "some force" when he kicked Bulger. [34] Thompson is said to have asked police whether Bulger had been taken to hospital to "get him alive again. Robert was regularly beaten by his older brothers, perhaps cementing an idea of age-based hierarchy when it comes to demonstrating power. I came back and then (Mrs Venables) went out. Robert Thompsons mother and father were patently not good parents. Exaggeration and gossip aside, a picture of neglect slowly emerged, a picture that focused on the pair's "bad parents", with the Daily Mail pronouncing: "Jon Venables, perhaps inevitably, is the classic product of a broken home." Background - Jon Venables and Robert Thompson Both boys had been held back a year, and they were put in the same class. [4] After a period of apparently reduced supervision, Venables began excessively drinking, taking drugs, and downloading child abuse images, as well as visiting Merseyside, which was a breach of his licence. 'Robbed of justice': The murder of Lucie Blackman, far beyond what anyone might imagine two primary school children to be capable of. THE NEW identity given to Jon Venables, one of the two killers of two-year-old Jamie Bulger, had been uncovered before the authorities discovered that he had The female staff member was suspended for sexual misconduct; she never returned to work at Red Bank. Left on her own, Thompson sought consolation in drink and was often to be found in the bar in Higson's Top House rather than looking after the children in her chaotic home. In court, Venables was the more emotional of the two defendants, crying openly and leaning against the shoulder of his social worker. [60] On 15 March 1999, the court in Strasbourg ruled by 14 votes to five that there had been a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the fairness of the trial of Thompson and Venables, stating: "The public trial process in an adult court must be regarded in the case of an 11-year-old child as a severely intimidating procedure. Jon Venables Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty 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. [9] At the trial, the lead prosecution counsel Richard Henriques successfully rebutted the principle of doli incapax, which presumes that young children cannot be held legally responsible for their actions. On 23 July 2010, Venables, aged 27, is jailed after admitting downloading and distributing indecent images of children. In 2008, a new probation officer said that he spent "a great deal of leisure time" playing video games and on the Internet. motivated the murder of James Thompson and Venables had attempted to lead away another two-year-old boy, but had been prevented by the boy's mother. . While Susan and Neil Venables lived in separate houses a mile apart, they tried to bring up their children in a united way - Jon spent Sunday to Thursday with his mum and the rest of the week with his dad. 'I walked round for a couple of hours trying to find them. AETNUK All Rights Reserved. Before their trial in November 1993, the press ferreted around the doorways and back alleys of Walton village, Liverpool, looking for any thing that might determine that these two 10-year-olds were indeed evil or the product of evil. [15][16], Thompson and Venables took Bulger to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, around .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}14 mile (400 metres) from the New Strand Shopping Centre, where they dropped him on his head, and he suffered injuries to his face. During the trial, the full horror of James' death emerged. WebJames Patrick Bulger Net Worth. They said their son met Robert Thompson in September 1991, when Jon was transferred from another school. His play, Monsters, opened to mixed reviews at the Arcola Theatre in London in May 2009. 2023 BBC. He is far from it. [103] A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice stated that there was a worldwide injunction against publication of either killer's location or new identity. Venables worked full-time in a job with anti-social hours, earning close to the minimum wage, the court heard. Lets explore what could have pushed Jamie Bulger's underage killers to the savage murder of the infant all those years ago. After they left the scene, his body was cut in half by a train. [4][95] A spokesman for St Helens Borough Council denied that the incident had been covered up, saying: "All allegations were thoroughly investigated by an independent team on the orders of the Home Office and chaired by Arthur de Frischling, a retired prison governor. When the officer arrived at his flat, Venables was attempting to remove or destroy the hard drive of his computer with a knife and a tin opener. The parents of the accused were moved to different parts of the country and assumed new identities following death threats from vigilantes. Despite the passage of nearly three decades, the story of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables continues to stun. Mr Venables said that the two boys had played truant together four times before, adding that he caught them twice. Audrey Gillan, who has reported the story from the start, examines the case against their mothers, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. "[9] The trial judge Mr. Justice Morland stated that exposure to violent videos might have encouraged the actions of Thompson and Venables; this was disputed by David Maclean, the Minister of State at the Home Office at the time, who said that police had found no evidence linking the case with "video nasties". They answered the question the next day, relaying the Australian government's denial that the killers had been settled in the country. A narrative emerged of two childhoods influenced not merely by the flaws of parents or the absence of a father, but by the environment in which these boys lived, a [9] One of the boys threw the blue paint that they had shoplifted earlier into Bulger's left eye. Lord Justice Nigel Davis said that the offence was "close to the line" for an immediate prison sentence but suspended the sentence, after observing an early admission of guilt and remorse by the woman. [87], On 27 November 2013, a man from Liverpool received a fourteen-month suspended prison sentence for posting images on Twitter claiming to show Venables. Despite this, Bulger's mother, Denise, told how in 2004 she received a tip-off from an anonymous source that helped her locate Thompson. Jon Venables There were tales of charity collection boxes being stolen and of children being assaulted in the classroom. Police had even trained him in counter-surveillance after he was told he would have to "live and hold a lie" for the rest of his life. Despite commonly held beliefs, psychopathy is mostly determined genetically. The Venables were by no means wealthy, but they were [22] They kicked him, stamped on him, and threw bricks and stones at him. WebJon Venables was born on August 13, 1982 in Liverpool, England, UK. I have lost my son as well. The film is based on transcripts of the police interviews with Thompson and Venables after their arrests. 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. [119], On 4 May 2011, it was reported that Venables would once again be given a new identity, following what was described as a "serious security breach", which revealed an identity that he had been using before his imprisonment in 2010; details of the breach could not be reported for legal reasons. A narrative emerged of two childhoods influenced not merely by the flaws of parents or the absence of a father, but by the environment in which these boys lived, a world of social and economic deprivation, of trashy television and cultural poverty, inadequate social services, failed schooling and general confusion. I used to get them for myself at night time. In 2018, the tranquillity of the Isle of Bute was rocked by an extremely barbaric murder, the after-effects of which still reverberate today. Little James was led away by The nurture side can exacerbate the condition, but this abnormality of brain function is primarily an inherited, DNA-caused condition. 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. Venables's identity uncovered before news of breach Turns out that Jon Venables has been living 20 miles away from me in Warrington under the name Paul Jon Williams. [2] Awaiting trial, they were held in the secure units where they would eventually be sentenced to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. Inside the dark and twisted world of child killer Jon Venables Did bad parenting turn Thompson and Venables into killers? [9][17] An eyewitness said that when he saw Bulger at the canal, the boy was "crying his eyes out". The storyline was to feature Loretta Jones and her friend Chrissy, who had been given new identities before arriving in the village, after being convicted of murdering a child at the age of 12. The Venables and Thompson families were at very different places on the spectrum of "dysfunctional" families: if the chain of causality between parental failings and juvenile homicide were so straightforwardly simple how many families should be regarded as pathological - potential producers of more child childkillers? [10][23] In the aftermath of their arrest, and throughout the media accounts of their trial, the boys were referred to as "Child A" (Thompson) and "Child B" (Venables). [9][56], After the trial, Thompson was held at the Barton Moss Secure Care Centre in Manchester. But now and again. It seems the natural assumption. Mr Venables said: "He wouldn't watch horror. The killer was 10-years-old when he and Robert Thompson murdered two-year-old 'I think about little James and what he must have gone through, how they must feel. He has never really been a truant. The naive words of the paedo's parents have come to light once again as a new documentary is set to air on ITV 25 years after the horrific murder. Sorry, the video player failed to load. (Error Code: 100013) The chilling words of Jon Venables' parents have resurfaced 25 years after he killed Jamie Bulger . [8] The boys were playing truant from their local primary school, which they did regularly. 2023 BBC. Could the pair of them have sought out a younger boy in order to gain dominion over him? A few days later, Venables and Thompson were arrested and charged - the youngest people to be accused of murder in the 20th Century. [109][110] On 23 July, Venables appeared at a court hearing at the Old Bailey via a video link, visible only to the judge hearing the case. [4], The judge, Mr Justice David Bean, ruled that Venables's new identity could not be revealed, but the media were allowed to report that he had been living in Cheshire at the time of his arrest. The Old Bailey also heard that in 2008 Venables had posed as a mother offering to sell her daughter for sex during three online chats. When Children Kill Children Some of the images involved children as young as two years old and some showed the rape of young girls. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables now in 2021: Jon is In the weeks and months and years that followed they have been attacked and vilified by the press. "On the other hand, you are looking at him and you are saying 'Well, I know why - because he is so weak'. Mrs Venables described how she searched for Jon. . On one occasion, he said, Robert ran off down the street laughing, "You can't catch me". He has had security with loving parents and a loving brother and sister.". "My heart really goes out to them. In one of the most chilling photos in He has had Christmas presents. The parents themselves are not murderers, but whatever blame attaches to them has been abundantly punished. He's quite bright and clever. Head trauma, autism and childhood abuse more common in killers, study finds, In October of 2012, a little girl from Machynlleth, Powys, Wales, vanished after being sighted willingly climbing into a car near her home. They took on new identities, tried to create new lives. 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? "I don't think we went wrong at all," Venables maintained rather desperately in a newspaper interview she later gave. A Merseyside detective said, "We went through something like 200 titles rented by the Venables family. As a result, we've decided to take you behind the scenes of the Mbappe family. In the picture, it is Venables who is holding James's hand. British children Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were just 10 when they tortured and killed two-year-old James Bulger in 1993. For two children to do what they did, both Jon Venables and Robert Thompson must have been quite seriously disturbed. . A lifetime ban was placed on reporting anything about either his or Thompson's whereabouts or their new identities after their release. The chances of his successful rehabilitation were described as "very high".