Wiping away tears, he went on: 'I feel for that family. ', They sagged off in the afternoon and walked around the shops in County Road, near Walton. Ann Thompson and Susan and Neil Venables didn't need to imagine. James' mother Denise believes they should have remained in jail for life and has tirelessly campaigned against their rights to anonymity. He stayed away from school so often the local police called him a professional truant. 'It was very dark and I shouted down, shouted his name. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter', Why half of India's urban women stay at home. It is here, of course, that Jon met and made friends with fellow eccentric, Robert Thompson. however, as the incident in the playground shows, the ever-present threat of discovery cast a constant shadow over anyone related to the two murderers. His body was found two days later on a railway line. The first time he asked Jon to play truant with him was last September, only weeks after they had become friends. Grainy CCTV footage later showed the innocent toddler being led away by Venables and Thompson, who marched the little boy through the streets of Bootle for two miles - a walk that would have taken hours given his size. The end of the court case was not the end of course. And now The Bulger Killers: Was Justice Done? Lawyers for the pair argued that the adult court venue and publicity made it impossible for the schoolboys to be given a fair trial. eb. Born on August 13th, 1982, Jon was the middle child of Neil and Susan Venables. Financially, the couple appeared to be functioning, but meanwhile, Susan was at the end of her rope with her eldest son, who, having become increasingly frustrated at his inability to communicate, had grown terribly unhappy and was having temper tantrums regularly. He was in great distress' And what about the little, innocent boy he killed??! The best instincts led hundreds, including me, to lay flowers a few days later at the site of James horrific end. In some families this was the third generation to be unemployed. "My heart really goes out to them. On countless occasions, Bobby battered his wife, once causing her to miscarry, and his temper didnt stop at his wife. . 'I can't read hard words,' he said. It has already been reported that Jon Venables real identity has been exposed in prison, where he is said to be receiving 24-hour protection. Just four years earlier, we had all covered the Hillsborough disaster and come together in grief. 'I couldn't hear anything,' she said. The first Susan Venables knew they had stayed away from school was when she saw one of Jon's classmates on her way home with the gerbils. The breaking point came when Jon was suspended from Broad Square after attempting to choke a classmate with a twelve-inch wooden ruler. Both boys had been held back a year, and they were put in the same class. . On the days he was at school he had a knack for stirring things up. More often, he would pinch them from local shops. It was when Jon turned seven that Susan and the children had relocated to Norris Green, one of Liverpools larger, more reputable areas. But however hollow a gesture it might have seemed, those who are in touch with the Thompson and Venables families insist that they have sought to make some sort of amends with their sons after the horrific events of 17 years ago that will rightly stay with them for the rest of their lives. Absence of a male role model is increasingly being explored - by both left and right - as one of the main reasons why today's boys and young men are going wrong; why 90 per cent of indictable offences are committed by men. Susan Venables, mother of Jon - referred to throughout the trial as Boy B - blamed her son's 'weakness' for the murder of James Bulger, . When the court was played Jon's taped descriptions of how they had truanted they simultaneously smiled. She would arrive at the secure unit with food parcels and is said to be proud of his achievements since the crime. "The report of the Prison Service into an incident at Red Bank secure unit has not been published. Nature. susan venables - Director - Juju & Co | LinkedIn fun to be with". I thought he was all right, Jon said of Robert during his police interviews. Celestial. 'They were just your average scruff - like the rest of us.'. 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Just something to do.'. He has had his holidays like everyone else. It was high- lighted by the trial judge Mr Justice Morland who said they must take moral responsibility for the terrible actions of the young killers. Once he stole decorating borders from a DIY shop which he discarded at regular intervals to mark his way home. "You look at him and you say to yourself, 'How could you be involved in anything like this?'" The government will be required to respond within 14 days if as the petition achieves more than 100,000 signatures. 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. sons, were settled in council houses within easy reach of the institutions where their sons were being held. Revealed: The horror drawing by Jon Venables weeks before he killed That was in September 1991, 17 months before they killed James Bulger. These are the words of an officer who was in the police station when DCI Geoff MacDonald of Merseyside Police broke the news to Denise that James was dead. cl gz. That means he is currently 35-years-old. 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. Both Ann and the children knew well the sting of palm against flesh, and Bobby often used these beatings to ensure that his wife and children conformed. The Radio Merseyside newsroom, where I was working at the time, was full and everyone was on this story one way or another. I don't think so. 'I think it has something to do with a hatred of vulnerability and babyness in themselves which they projected on to this toddler.'. Trauma? The two bumped into each other - literally - in the school playground in the middle of a fight. Venables and Thompson were seen on CCTV calmly leading the toddler out of the shopping centre by his hand. Susan Venable: 141 records - CVs, addresses, photos, cars - uFind.name Read about our approach to external linking. It emerged that the Venables family had suffered the same fate in another area. I feel so sorry for them. 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. They said their son met Robert Thompson in September 1991, when Jon was transferred from another school. It was this empowering chemistry between them that some argued set into motion the life-altering events that would devastate a family, challenge a community, and rock a nations core in the disquieting months that followed. Without anyone in the family to turn to for support, he had to look outside for people whose swaggering aggression he could emulate. Everyone called him Chubby, because of his round, cherub's face. He has had more love and attention than a lot of children I know. His mother cared about him. We feel so sorry for him because he must be going through so much torment. ", Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Depressed, Ann began drinking heavily and was taking narcotics which caused her to hallucinate. Truanting, or 'sagging off', had become a way of life for Robert. His parents say he is 'broken-hearted'. The reaction prompted James' mum Denise Fergus to let supporters know she had nothing to do with the programme. Whatever problems she had in her own life, she was always there. After a while he tried to commit suicide to get back in. 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. Grey Heron. In 2010, Meggie Atkinson, then children's commissioner for England, called for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 12 in light of the trial. "Contrary to what the papers will tell you, he is not a little urchin boy. Superintendent Albert Kirby, who headed the investigation, doesn't believe in the under-belly of Liverpool nonsense or stuff about the disintegration of modern society, the collapse of the nineties cities. 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. This would have put Jon in a particularly arduous position, as the couples only excelling child, and as author Gitta Sereny observed from her time spent with the Venables in 1994, forcing this middle child, Jon, for a long time, perhaps unconsciously, to compensate his mother for her two problem children, put an enormous weight of responsibility on this child virtually from the time he was born., As Susan struggled to manage her two disadvantaged children day to day, Neil was the familys breadwinner, working as a forklift driver. I would say he was provoked. He's a good reader if he's interested in it. He has had security with loving parents and a loving brother and sister.". this weekend for breaching the terms of his early release, the parents of both the Bulger killers continue to stand by them. They didnt kill him in an accident it was premeditated and they tortured that poor baby. Susan Venables - People Directory - 192.com The couple, who also have a 13- year-old son, who has learning difficulties, and a 9-year-old daughter, denied that Jon was bullied by his brother or that he watched violent horror films at home. With Neil seldom in contact with Susan or the children during this time, Susan was forced to contend with Jons escalating troubles alone, sometimes taking her own frustrations out on the children. She said an educational psychologist had diagnosed hyperactivity in her son, who was bullied at his previous school. Born on August 13th, 1982, Jon was the middle child of Neil and Susan Venables. Mrs Thompson claimed she had been the victim of revenge attacks after her identity became known. 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. Egypt. For weeks, she stayed in bed, not bothering to tend to the children, and when she finally did reemerge, she readily admitted she drank from morning to night, but had stopped taking the pills. Something went wrong, please try again later. Their kids have got everything, she added, bitterly. rk ye. - a grey heron in Asawn, Southern Egypt. His mates called him a girl because whenever there was something on his mind he sucked his thumb. From the moment Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were convicted of the murder of James Bulger, their, families have been condemned to lives spent looking over their shoulders. Their age was hard to gauge from the CCTV images, so just when you imagined you couldnt be more shocked by this story, it emerged the two accused were just 10-years-old.