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. You know, we just try and help him as best we can to try to come to terms with things. The Venables decided to place her with their eldest son, in a school for children with special needs. A parole board ruled that Thompson and Venables were no longer a threat. 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. From their point of view it makes perfect sense. 'I sat away from him - he caused trouble,' Jon said. In quest of companionship, he occasionally bullied his younger brother into truanting with him, and, in an effort to impress his peers, frequently boasted of his late-night exploits on the railway line, but failed to attract much attention. Susan Venables's bent body shrank deeper into itself. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 10, murdered him in cold blood. His response couldn't have been more different as he sank into the oversized blazer he was wearing. He said that on the day James was killed, when he went to the school in the afternoon to collect Jon he was told his son was missing. I know how I feel as a mother. Sorry, we are unable to accept comments about this article at the moment. Neighbors later reported that it wasnt uncommon for Robert to be seen wandering the streets of Walton after midnight, since he was always running off at night. 'When the fisticuffs ended, they made friends.' On countless occasions, Bobby battered his wife, once causing her to miscarry, and his temper didnt stop at his wife. They were drawn to one another quickly. His mother cared about him. Could they have planned to do it in advance? One day they stayed out until 10.30pm and Jon received a severe reprimand from his mother. 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. To widespread dismay and condemnation from the Bulger family, the killers were given new identities, courtesy of the taxpayer. "In order that justice can be done, no further details are being released at this stage and the proceedings are subject to reporting restrictions.". "I think about little James and what he must have gone through, how they must feel. So, when he first began his association with classmate Jon Venables, in September 1992, Robert was happy to have finally befriended a boy like Jon, who could almost always be persuaded to follow in his lead. She was a happy baby, much happier than her eldest brother had been, but as she grew older, Susan began noticing that she, too, appeared lazy, and was not as advanced as Jon. 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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. Will you tell his Mum Im sorry?. 'Provided you have no court orders for debts already,' the man on the phone would add helpfully. Both were banned from ever returning to Liverpool and given new identities at a reported cost of 1.5million. The end of the court case was not the end of course. Susan and neil venables. View the profiles of people named Susan Venables. The best instincts led hundreds, including me, to lay flowers a few days later at the site of James horrific end. I wasnt on duty that day, so the very beginnings of the story washed over me. I don't think so. He used to be bullied by other children for being so behind, and would return home at night visibly upset. 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. The Royal Mint of a 50p coin featuring Professor Albus Dumbledore as part of a Harry Potter-themed collection. He would go to bed. The appearance in court this week of Venables, now a 35-year-old man, on charges of possessing indecent images of children, was a jarring reminder that, still a quarter of a century on, his rehabilitation is more an ambition than a reality. It is just heartbreaking.". James Bulger's killers: Where are Robert Thompson and Jon Venables? The boys lived off chips. It was their sons picked up by detectives. Venables was caught with 1,170 indecent photos of children on his laptop, the Old Bailey was told. The week after he walked out the family's home burned down in an accidental fire. Jon's parents, who sat in court for most of the trial, said they grieved for the Bulgers. 'I was the softie,' Neil Venables said. How can people defend their actions .#TheBulgerKillers.". On the walls hung oil paintings of local judges and magistrates, their surfaces crinkled with age. wo. 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. 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. 'It was good. 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Once the jury retired, so did the journalists - but we didnt go far. It set the tone for the years ahead in which there was to be no respite from the hatred. 'If, in their own lives, they have had it extremely tough and been bullied and neglected and abused then they end up rapidly having to prove themselves to be extremely tough and invulnerable - a bit like Arnold Shwarzenegger in The Terminator. Jobs were few and far between. The family was put up in a hostel temporarily and later relocated by the social services. S. Susan venables. 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. They rejected suggestions that he could have watched Child's Play Three, a film that his father had rented three weeks before James's death, which, it has been claimed, included scenes similar to those of the attack on the two-year-old. Denise Fergus is the same age as me, a fact I only registered when I met her for the first time two weeks ago. Now we waited. His former wife would send their boys up the street to give their father the fingers through the bay windows of his mother's house. The living versions on the floor of the court looked equally wrinkled and austere. He was repulsed because he found Robert's disdain for authority scary. Read about our approach to external linking. Other parents came in to complain about attention seeking. He is an old-fashioned crime and punishment man. I'm warning yer,' she would say. Who were their parents? On November 24, 1993, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables became the youngest persons to be convicted of murder in Britain in almost 250 years, when the pair, both eleven, was found guilty of the abduction and murder of two-year-old James Patrick Bulger. 'We have never really been apart,' Mrs Venables said. 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. They were in the Strand shopping centre in Bootle when the brother wandered off. The questioning was calm, steady, even playful at the beginning to try to get a sense the two boys really did know the difference between right and wrong. We feel so sorry for him because he must be going through so much torment. I thought he was all right, Jon said of Robert during his police interviews. What happened to James Bulger? Constantly restless, his workbooks were empty, and he would often be denied recess because he was so far behind. He is broken- hearted over it. 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'.". She said an educational psychologist had diagnosed hyperactivity in her son, who was bullied at his previous school. Regrettably, yet perhaps not entirely unforeseen, the cycle of abuse continued. Denise was in court that day. The haunting words of Jon Venables' parents only interview have resurfaced, twenty five years after he killed tot Jamie Bulger. ', They sagged off in the afternoon and walked around the shops in County Road, near Walton. "Youngsters are usually tried in a youth court, [Thompson and Venables] were tried in an adult court. 'Sometimes I told Robbie to do things so he does,' he told a police officer, with pride in his voice. 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 report of the Prison Service into an incident at Red Bank secure unit has not been published. At Preston Crown Court Thompsons mother Ann and Venables parents Neil and Sue sat side by side. Their kids have got everything, she added, bitterly. They sat just feet from me, perched on the edge of their wooden seat, smartly dressed and hunched in shame just below their son, Jon. Denise Bulger believes her son's murderers - men now - should be in prison for ever. The hardliners in the police have a simpler explanation. Tweet. Neither gave evidence to the court, but were found guilty after an officer told how Venables admitted the murder, saying, "We did it. MOST of the boys were bright. She couldn't. Shed never been back but she clearly missed Liverpool and had tried to recreate the city in her new home, he recalls. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. Mrs Thompson said she was so often called to Walton Lane police station to retrieve her truanting son that they should have given her a job there. The phone-in programme, as ever, was a place to turn to try to find reasons - evil, poverty, neglect, possessed anything to explain what felt inexplicable. The attitude when you live where we live is that you have to be tough or else you dont survive, she said. Usually, they were slung out. Thompson, who gained five GCSEs and A-levels in design and technology, is said to have developed an interest in theatre. I wish we could turn the clocks back,' Mrs Venables, 36, said. The Radio Merseyside newsroom, where I was working at the time, was full and everyone was on this story one way or another. They would hang around the video shop in Walton Village where the shop girl was pleased to have their company. The documentary on the James Bulger murder case sparked anger after viewers criticised the Channel 4 show for "sympathising" with the toddler's killers. And in Lower Lane police station when he was being questioned about the murder she had to be told that her harsh words were inhibiting him from confessing. Not that he had any need to borrow his dad's. Both boys had been held back a year, and they were put in the same class. He would throw things at other children, cut himself deliberately with scissors and stick paper all over his face. I didnt connect the dots until much later on. Hes your son., Unhappily, it was during this critical time that Ann became pregnant with her seventh child, the product of another failed relationship. susan venables - Director - Juju & Co | LinkedIn Last week the author Angela Phillips spoke of how the gentle son of the female friend of hers turned into a fascist skinhead: 'The boy his mother wanted him to become was not man enough for the world he was forced to inhabit. 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. 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"Throughout the conduct of the case there have been a number of issues that have been swept under the carpet. In the autumn term of 1992, Robert played truant for 49 half days and Jon for 40. ', The closest either boy came to offering an explanation was when Jon was asked by police why he had taken James's shoe off by the railway tracks. The couples first child, a son, had been born with a cleft pallet, and when Jon was born, much of the Venables focus was on getting their eldest son into speech therapy. Robert had asked once before but Jon, who had rarely truanted in his previous school, was scared and said no. Nine months later, I was one of 30 or so journalists inside Preston Crown Court when the trial began. She said that Jon was always "loving, caring, thoughtful and considerate . Ultimately, however, the couples indifferences led to separation, and they were eventually divorced in 1986. . Were they to blame? 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. Toddler James Bulger disappeared on February 12 1993. 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. "All he said when we've said 'Why didn't you run away?' I couldnt make any sense of it, Robert later recalled, desolately, when asked about his fathers unexpected departure. Please review our, You need to be a subscriber to join the conversation. But talking in 1993, his mother tried to explain how her child turned into a murderer. We still dont know why. Their seats were just below the raised dock where their sons would sit for the next three weeks, listening to a prosecution which aimed to prove not only that they killed James Bulger, but that they planned to, and that when they did they knew it to be wrong. But they shouldn't have been tried in an adult court because they were still children. Superintendent Kirby is a religious man. If I wanted to kill a baby, Id kill Id kill me own, wouldnt I?. Or they would mess around in shops, playing on computer games if Robert had his way, sliding on the polished floors if Jon had his. His mates called him a girl because whenever there was something on his mind he sucked his thumb. as he was known in court - Jon Venables. When he played truant he was scared she would come and find him. According to a legal source we spoke to this week, Jon Venables parents have sought to be a support for their son, despite the enormity of his crime. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? I would say he was provoked. He was jailed for two years before being granted parole again in July 2013. Facebook gives people the power. 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'. 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. Their kids have got everything. 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. At his first primary school the headmistress referred him to a psychologist, noting how he used to bang his head against the classroom wall to gain attention. Trauma? Any anxiety or animosity he might have felt was manifested largely through his school-aged thumb-sucking, a habit which elicited titters and taunts from the neighborhood children. Truanting, or 'sagging off', had become a way of life for Robert. "It is hard to take in really. The trial though didnt, and was never designed to, shed light on how two such young children could be guilty of such sustained barbarity. Robert always wanted to stay out late and encouraged Jon to join him. his killers were just 10 years old and attention focused on their upbringing and dysfunctional home life. Venables and Thompson were seen on CCTV calmly leading the toddler out of the shopping centre by his hand. It was to be an adult trial, both boys appearing every day in the full gaze of whoever was in that room, but neither giving evidence directly to the court. By now the two boys from Walton were part of an international freak show. His body was found two days later on a railway line. He believes these were evil boys. March 10, 2021 - 20:29 GMT Eve Crosbie. Big Bobby, like Anns father, was a violent alcoholic, who was easily crossed. Child killer Mary Bell and Maxine Carr, the former girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley, are the others. Neil Venables regarded himself as the Barry Norman of Merseyside - a film buff with a penchant for horror. We have found 88 people in the UK with the name Susan Venables. His father, thin and balding, had a much gentler edge. 'I didn't know it would be like this,' Mr Venables said with hindsight. 'It's always our family that gets the blame,' Robert said to police after he was arrested for James's murder. Little Bobby went to visit his brothers every so often, eager to show them the latest playthings he had robbed from the assorted shops nearby. The right will draw attention to the broken homes, the single parents, the persistent truancy. Why would I want to kill him? he said, referring to the slain toddler. Englands Ollie Chessum dives in to score his sides second try during the Guinness Six Nations match at Twickenham Stadium, London, Sam Smith arrives for the Brit Awards ceremony, A robin redbreast takes flight in Dublins botanic gardens. One investigating police officer said: 'You could look into the eyes of Robert and knew you were looking at evil.' Get the biggest TV headlines, recaps and insider knowledge straight to your inbox. Profile: Jon Venables - BBC News