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On Thursday 18 February the arresting officers start to interview the two boys. Thompson has been taken to Walton Lane Police Station and Venables has found himself in Liverpool’s Lower Lane Police Station. Both boys have samples of their blood, hair and fingernails taken. He gives a very detailed explanation of events of that day, unfortunately this explanation cant follow the boys too closely once they reach the railway line as, in their interviews, both Venables and Thompson vacillated, blaming each other, offering alternative narratives and, sadly a thorough picture of what occurred has ever been gained. Coslett, Paul (25 November 1993). "Lessons of an avoidable tragedy". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Blease, Stephen (23 February 2009). "Young know what is wrong". North-West Evening Mail. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011 . Retrieved 29 August 2009.
This book was didactic with no real effort to storytell. It should’ve been dry. Instead, with its unflinching and frank approach, it was unsettling and engrossing. a b Foster, Jonathan (17 December 1999). "Bulger ruling: If the defendants could not talk about their crime, how could they conduct a defence?". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 11 April 2010 . Retrieved 12 March 2010. Duffy, Tom (12 October 2016). "Web troll who targeted James Bulger's mum has sentence reduced on appeal". Liverpool Echo. Archived from the original on 26 October 2016 . Retrieved 26 October 2016.
Margate woman jailed for 'cruel' James Bulger tweets". BBC News. 14 July 2016. Archived from the original on 14 July 2016 . Retrieved 14 July 2016. Closed-circuit television (CCTV) at the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle on 12 February 1993 showed Thompson and Venables casually observing children, apparently selecting a target. [8] The boys were playing truant from their local primary school, which they did regularly. [9] Throughout the day, Thompson and Venables were seen shoplifting various items, including sweets, batteries, a troll doll, and a can of blue Humbrol modelling paint. [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. [11] Laing, Aislinn (10 March 2010). "Bulger killer Jon Venables posed 'trivial' risk to the public, said psychiatrist". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 13 March 2010 . Retrieved 10 March 2010.
Williams, Zoe. " Jon Venables: how attitudes towards criminality have changed and hardened." The Guardian. 5 July 2013. Foster, Jonathan (2 December 1993). "Right and wrong paths to justice". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012 . Retrieved 16 March 2010.Scott, Shirley. "Death of James Bulger: Pt 5, Robert Denies, Jon Cries". truTV.com. Archived from the original on 2 October 2008 . Retrieved 12 March 2010. Jon Venables is also 10. His parents divorced when he was three-years-old and together they share joint custody of him and his two siblings. When he appears at the top of the stairs, the police are astounded by his young age and small stature. The police are certain that the boys they’ve just arrested aren’t who they’re looking for. They strongly believe the children are just not capable of such a crime. Lord Donaldson criticised Howard's intervention, describing the increased tariff as "institutionalised vengeance ... [by] a politician playing to the gallery". [9] The increased minimum term was overturned in 1997 by the House of Lords that ruled it "unlawful" for the Home Secretary to decide on minimum sentences for young offenders. [50] The High Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights have since ruled that although the parliament may set minimum and maximum terms for individual categories of crime, it is the responsibility of the trial judge, with the benefit of all the evidence and argument from both prosecution and defence counsel, to determine the minimum term in individual criminal cases. [49]
Seven 'sorry' for Bulger ad" (PDF). The Age. Australia. 31 August 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 April 2010 . Retrieved 1 September 2009. June 2001: Having served their minimum eight-year sentence Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are released Ralph speaks with searing honesty in this book along with his brother Jimmy who had to identify James's body. How awful that must be for somebody to have to do. Thompson and Venables didn't just kill somebody, they destroyed so many lives. Ralph, Denise, their family, and also the people that saw James with Thompson and Venables but did nothing about it. And why would they have done? Ralph himself assumed that James was safe when he saw him on the CCTV with two older boys. Nobody could have guessed what was to happen. Bunyan, Nigel (25 October 2016). "Man jailed for stalking mother of murdered toddler James Bulger". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 October 2016 . Retrieved 26 October 2016. Tony Blair, then Shadow Home Secretary, gave a speech in Wellingborough during which he said: "We hear of crimes so horrific they provoke anger and disbelief in equal proportions ... These are the ugly manifestations of a society that is becoming unworthy of that name." [9] Prime Minister John Major said that "society needs to condemn a little more, and understand a little less." [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". [51]Two youngsters who found a new rule to break". The Guardian. 25 November 1993. Archived from the original on 23 December 2015 . Retrieved 10 March 2013.
The authorities having underestimated the public’s anger, relocates the trial to Preston. The trial begins on 1 November, at Preston Crown Court. A special platform is built to allow the defendants to see above the railings. Denise and Ralph Bulger announce they are expecting another baby, but Denise refuses to come to court. She’s vehement she won’t sit in the same vicinity as James’ killers. To this day there are still certain details of the case that she’s unaware of. Crucially the boys have now reached the age of 11 and are old enough to be convicted of murder. However, the jury needs to believe that both boys understand the seriousness of their crimes. To hide the identity of both boys they are referred to during the trial as Child A and Child B. The Bulger case: chronology". The Guardian. London. 16 September 1999. Archived from the original on 18 February 2014 . Retrieved 16 March 2010.
Bulger killers eligible for release". BBC. 26 October 2000. Archived from the original on 24 December 2002 . Retrieved 16 March 2010. I always said if they weren’t punished in the right way they’d go on to commit more crimes, and that’s what happened,” she said. a b "Omand Review – The Case of Jon Venables". Scribd.com. 23 November 2010. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012 . Retrieved 15 January 2012. People think I set up a place for James, but it’s not like that,” Fergus told the Observer. “We have a table for six, and there’s five of us. I’ve always said that the empty chair is where James should be sitting. I try to be positive when I talk about him. I don’t want James’s memory to be lost.” We have seen from the studies of the perpetrators of the Holocaust, for example in Christopher Browning’s brilliant Ordinary Men, how murder can be normalised, so guys can think that shooting a village full of men, women and children is an unpleasant but reasonable thing to do, given the circumstances. You know, a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. That was the pathology of a lot of German murderers during the Third Reich. It was group think. It was people abdicating responsibility upwards. Hitler, he knows what he’s doing. Everything is happening just like he said it would. We’re not psychopaths, we’re doing good work here, building a great future for our children.
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