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. One of Anns sons claimed that Ann, too, had beaten them with sticks, and had struck one of the boys with a cane. Once he stole decorating borders from a DIY shop which he discarded at regular intervals to mark his way home. 'I couldn't hear anything,' she said. They deal with drugs, they deal with everything. Naturaleza. They went on family outings together, slept together, and when Susan did find a place, virtually coexisted between the two homes. What happened to James Bulger? 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. His mind was too restless to take up other hobbies for long. Born on August 13th, 1982, Jon was the middle child of Neil and Susan Venables. He has had security with loving parents and a loving brother and sister.". . Their kids have got everything, she added, bitterly. He stayed away from school so often the local police called him a professional truant. 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. It was the kind of family neighbours compare themselves against and then feel better. I wish we could turn the clocks back,' Mrs Venables, 36, said. The other shops in the area were also armoured with mesh, including the Red Garden chipper where Robert used to pop in with his brothers most nights for a 25p bag of chips. Child killer Mary Bell and Maxine Carr, the former girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley, are the others. The pair were handed new identities after being released from prison. I thought he was all right, Jon said of Robert during his police interviews. He frequented local cinemas and regularly hired videos for the night. Three years ago, after his mother walloped him, he went to social services and asked them to put him in care. I know how I feel as a mother. He is one of those children that if you told him to put his hand in the fire, he would. Everton was his team. At Preston Crown Court a few months later, I was one of a handful of journalists given full access to the small courtroom for the trial of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both now 11-years-old. That's the thing that upsets me because obviously where I was standing poor little James must have been not. Although he appeared to have the more stable upbringing of the two boys, there was a history of family problems. INSIDE the court sat the two boys, dwarfed by the weight and majesty of the place. One neighbour said she always let him into her home whenever his mother was out. March 10, 2021 - 20:29 GMT Eve Crosbie. Thompson, who gained five GCSEs and A-levels in design and technology, is said to have developed an interest in theatre. "He fell over," was the response. The parents of James Bulgers killers have also come to learn that the consequences of that terrible day will stay with them for ever too. Ann tried to discourage this by hiding his shoes, or by taking him down to the Walton Lane police station and having the officer on duty frighten him into compliance, but to no avail. 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. fn ye vw la. . Jon Venables arrived at Walton St. Marys Church of England School a disrupted and attention-seeking boy, whose behavior was so bizarre at times that one of his teachers considered him to be emotionally unstable. Not surprisingly, Ann had also attempted suicide in the same manner, some months before. [3] [4] Thompson and Venables led Bulger away . 'America is the land of shopping malls. Truanting, or 'sagging off', had become a way of life for Robert. 'I sat away from him - he caused trouble,' Jon said. Sitting in the new class was a chubby boy with a cherub's face - Robert Thompson. One day they stayed out until 10.30pm and Jon received a severe reprimand from his mother. Who knows. Some neighbours claim they saw the boy snaring birds into traps in the back yard of his home, while one local youth claimed he saw the boy pull the heads off live baby pigeons. Occasionally, when the children would be left sitting on the red wall outside the house too long, one of the neighbours would call the police to go and get her out of the Top House. His mother gave him pocket money to buy them. When you have got people in the area threatening to blow your kneecaps off every moment of the daythats just the way they are. To widespread dismay and condemnation from the Bulger family, the killers were given new identities, courtesy of the taxpayer. His mother called him hyperactive since, even more than his friend, he was scarcely able to sit still. From their point of view it makes perfect sense. He disliked Thunderbirds because of the puppets' 'stringy thingies'. UK news in pictures 15 February 2023. The sunrises through the sea mist over the sculpture The Couple by Sean Henry at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea on the Northumberland coast. 'I don't know,' he replied. Mr Venables said: "He wouldn't watch horror. 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. Natural Landmarks. Nature. ", Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Among the list were several horror films, including one video in which the police took special interest: Child's Play 3, a film which carries the line 'Children are consumer trainees'. Meanwhile, A petition demanding a public inquiry into James Bulger's murder case has got nearly 15,000 signatures in one day. Extraordinarily, she even shouted up to the railway tracks at Walton where she knew Robert had a den. They played a double act towards the children: his mother, Susan, aged 36, a sharp woman with a hawkish look, was the hard one. Weeping, she said: 'I wasn't actually on the railway track because there is a fence, but I went up the side. On the days he was at school he had a knack for stirring things up. 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. Robert always wanted to stay out late and encouraged Jon to join him. Two boys who forged a friendship out of breaking the rules. 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. She would arrive at the secure unit with food parcels and is said to be proud of his achievements since the crime. It is just heartbreaking.". . The four who drove Suzanne to Romiley - Jean Powell (now Jean Gillespie), Bernadette McNeilly, Glyn Powell, and Anthony Dudson - were all found guilty of murder. Some people thought they were as old as 12 or 13, but when they met they were both only 10 years old. In the business world, too many people think it's all about being hard, tough, ambitious, or having grit. She said that Jon was always "loving, caring, thoughtful and considerate . Susan and the children moved in with her mother for a short time, and then settled in a small cluster of derelict apartments in Old Swan, where Jon attended the nearby Broad Green Preschool. The bird was taken to the vets where they are nursing it back to health. Teachers hold placards as they shout slogans while taking part in a protest organised in Manchester as part of a national strike day. Depressed, Ann began drinking heavily and was taking narcotics which caused her to hallucinate. Jon was also mad on computers. He used to be bullied by other children for being so behind, and would return home at night visibly upset. so they were put in a lower year. 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. That seems the very least they could face for what they did. They played truant, they pinched sweets, they terrorised old ladies. After spending just eight years in custody, Britain's youngest killers were released and given lifetime anonymity in the UK. Asked later if he could recall a time when his brother had exhibited any unusually aggressive tendencies, Roberts brother said no: Hes frightened of his own shadow. Nonetheless, in hindsight, its safe to assume that by 1993, ten-year-old Robert was swiftly approaching crisis point., Alarmingly, some of the neighboring children later claimed to have seen Robert behave cruelly towards animals, and pull the heads off of baby pigeons, although this was never unequivocally confirmed. My young body must have been tense with the deep anxiety that permeated every inch of that courtroom. He is broken- hearted over it. On countless occasions, Bobby battered his wife, once causing her to miscarry, and his temper didnt stop at his wife. He believes these were evil boys. Sorry, we are unable to accept comments about this article at the moment. But viewers were shocked when experts "defended" the 10-year-old murderers saying they made "an awful mistake". It would be a week before we heard their voices, in hours of taped police interviews, They stopped us all in our tracks. She got her drinking under control and began giving her murderer son the attention he. Gillespie, McNeilly, and Powell were sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years. One of the new works by Banksy, appears to show a 1950s housewife, wearing a classic blue pinny and yellow washing up gloves, with a swollen eye and a missing tooth seemingly shoving her male partner into a chest freezer, the piece is set on a white wall backdrop in Kent. ROBERT had a reputation in the neighbourhood for being a troublemaker. The abduction and brutal murder of this two-year-old by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who were just 10 at the time, prompted a conversation in Britain that we are still having today. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Once the jury retired, so did the journalists - but we didnt go far. 'They were just your average scruff - like the rest of us.'. A smell of bleach lingered on some of the tiled steps that led up to the front doors. She also had to stay strong for the remaining children. Ironically, the relationship between mother and son improved when he, was behind bars. When Robert was asked what his hobby was he did not say trolls but 'skipping school'. 'I couldn't be arsed talking about them,' said one. 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. At Radio City in Liverpool the calls were coming through from Australia, New Zealand and Canada. He once came to me crying saying the other boys were picking on him, trying to steal his bike.'. 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. Venables was caught with 1,170 indecent photos of children on his laptop, the Old Bailey was told. Another added: "An awful mistake??!! From the start, Jon was drawn and repulsed by Robbie like opposite and equal poles of a magnet. "Youngsters are usually tried in a youth court, [Thompson and Venables] were tried in an adult court. While, on the face of it, there doesnt appear to be as much external devastation present in Jons family history as in Roberts, his outlandish behavior suggested that internally, Jon was in a state of extreme emotional upset. The bleached houses were peppered with burglar alarms, the shabby ones did not look worth the trouble. 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. 'I think it has something to do with a hatred of vulnerability and babyness in themselves which they projected on to this toddler.'. The details of Jamess death were sickening. In March 2010, Venables was recalled to prison for downloading and distributing more than 100 images of child abuse. The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. In March 2010, Venables was recalled to prison for downloading and distributing more than 100 images of child abuse. Ironically, Jon was the child who caused his parents least anxiety. She initially enrolled the two younger children in Broad Square Elementary, but it soon became clear that her daughter was struggling to keep up with the schools curriculum. 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. "Throughout the conduct of the case there have been a number of issues that have been swept under the carpet. Venables on the other hand was becoming increasingly agitated in the police interviews. The shocking murder that shook the nation, Both Venables and Robert Thompson were 10 years-old when they tortured and killed 2 year-old James Bulger, Thompson and Venables were tried as adults, James Bulger, aged 2 years old, being led away in a shopping centre in Liverpool, Denise Fergus denied having anything to do with the Channel 4 documentary about her son, James Bulger's murder case could now be investigated, The petition is on nearly 15,000 signatures, James Bulger was just two when he was brutally murdered, He had been out shopping with his mum Denise, James was made to walk two miles before being left for dead on a disused rail line, Denise tirelessly campaigned to have their sentence increased, Denise once admitted she's lived 'in fear' since the trial. She spent much of her time at the pub after that, and rarely stayed in for a meal. . Guilty of abducting and murdering James PatrickBulger. "I don't think we went wrong as parents at all. his killers were just 10 years old and attention focused on their upbringing and dysfunctional home life. Both of them struggled at school and had been lumped into the year below their age. Denise was in court that day. He was in great distress' And what about the little, innocent boy he killed??! The base of the dock floor at Preston Crown Court had to be raised 18 inches so each boy could see over it. His body was found two days later on a railway line. What they did was exceptionally unpleasant and the fact that a little boy ended up dead is not something the nation can easily forget. Moments later, we were told, Jon Venables uttered the words, We did it. I wish we could turn the clocks back," Mrs Venablessaid. "The report of the Prison Service into an incident at Red Bank secure unit has not been published. Other parents came in to complain about attention seeking. Susan Venables, mother of Jon - referred to throughout the trial as Boy B - blamed her son's 'weakness' for the murder of James Bulger, . . Thompson admitted nothing. The police have uncovered no evidence of any abuse within either family. The taunts upset Jons already volatile temper, and he began coming home in increasingly low spirits and crying. Murder of James Bulger. 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. Money, or his family's lack of it, preyed on his mind. Jon, who had the most trouble sleeping, appeared fearful of Susan, and was terrified, above all, of her condemnation. "All he said when we've said 'Why didn't you run away?' Directly in front of the bench was the raised dock in which Thompson, Venables, and two social workers would sit for the next four weeks. 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. She found it hard bringing the kids up in the neighbourhood. I cant believe people find excuses for these murderers. IN their interviews with the two boys, psychiatrists could find no clues to why the boys acted so violently. He had a Game Boy console and hankered after a Sega machine, and when they played truant he would head straight for the computer game corner of Tandy's or Dixons. I don't think so. The statement said: "The man formerly known as Jon Venables has been charged with offences relating to indecent images of children and will appear in the Crown Court. It was their sons picked up by detectives. Something went wrong, please try again later. "I think about little James and what he must have gone through, how they must feel. S. Susan venables. Jon's parents said they talked to their son about James after he was arrested, but had to stop.