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James Bulger

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Alesha MacPhail: They know why the ‘boy’ killed and remembering Venables and Thompson

Alesha Macphail

In July 2017 Alesha MacPhail was abducted, raped and murdered. Her killer’s name will not be known. The Mail calls him a “boy”. The Scotsman calls him a “teenager”. He’s a “16-year-old” on The Scotsman’s front page. The Metro just says “the teen” in “PURE EVIL”. But we won’t get to know his name.

Alesha was murdered on the Isle of Bute, an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. The country’s law rules that to publish the name, address, school or any other information which could identify anyone under the age of 18 who is the accused, victim or witness in a criminal case in any media is illegal. So don’t. You can, however, name the victim. Alesha MacPhail is the only name that matters.

alesha mcphail

Minds turn to the abduction and murder of James Bulger, 2, in 1993. The names of the guilty – two boys aged 10 – were soon known. Tony Blair stirred the mob, positioning the crime as one emblematic of the country’s dire straits and moral disintegration.

The killers’ families lived in fear of revenge attacks. In 2012, 38 year-old Scott Bradley committed suicide, unable to cope with people mistaking him for Jon Venables, one of the killers. “My son was tormented by the allegations,” said Mr Bradley;s mother. “He had a good heart and didn’t deserve this. It’s been heartbreaking.”

James Bulger newspaper front page
England: 1993 – James Bulger, 2, is abducted, abused and murdered by two boys. We knew their names.

Do we need to know the name of Alesha MacPhail’s murderer? The killer’s own mother helped bring him to justice. She alerted detectives after reviewing footage from two CCTV cameras outside the family home. She watched her son coming and going three times between 01:54 and 04:07 on the night Alesha was murdered. If we know the killer, we know her. Why should an innocent woman wear the stain in public? He will be in jail for a long, long time. Isn’t that enough?

Venables and Thompson were released on parole in 2001 under new identities. They must not ever reveal to anyone who they once were. To do so would land them back in prison. Venables was caught downloading child pornography. He has been jailed indefinitely as it is feared he is likely to reveal his true identity.

Thompson VEnables mugshots
Feb 1993: Jon Venables and Robert Thompson pose for their mugshots.

We don’t know the killer’s name. But do we know why he did it?

Revenge:

The BBC: “The jury heard the teenager previously bought cannabis from Alesha’s father, Robert MacPhail, but the pair fell out five months before her death over an unpaid £10 drug debt.”

A Meme:

The Star: “The unnamed boy, 16, searched for the Slender Man meme, and some of his sick acts mirrored those carried out by the character… Slender Man was invented by users on the Something Awful forum in 2009 for a paranormal Photoshop competition. Shown as a thin, tall, featureless figure in a black suit, in many stories written online about him feature stalking or abducting people, especially children.

Gaming:

The Sun: “The teenager got sick thrills from playing gory video games.”

Bute:

Daily Mail: “How the boy of 16 who murdered ‘angel’ Alesha MacPhail, six, had already ‘almost drowned a girl’ and was mired in a culture of drugs and cheap booze that has gripped the Isle of Bute”

One heinous and blessedly rare crime now defines a place?

His Looks:

Daily Mail: “He is handsome, in a modern, metrosexual way, with luxuriant, swept-over hair and a milky complexion. Dressed immaculately, in a tartan suit and collar and tie, he gave evidence with great self-assurance.”

So much for the CV.

No Idea:

BBC: ‘Judge Lord Matthews told the killer he had stolen Alesha’s life by “committing some of the most wicked and evil crimes this court has ever heard of in decades of dealing with depravity”. He said he had “no idea” why the teenager carried out the murder, and described the evidence in the case as “overwhelming”.’

Kicks:

Sky News: “Alesha MacPhail: Killed for the ‘life experience’?”

Posted: 22nd, February 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Tabloids | Comment


James Bulger: And the Oscar for bad taste goes to…

James Bulger is back in the news. The child murdered by children is on the Mirror’s front page. “BULGERS RAGE AT OSCARS INSULTS,” says the headline. The story is yet another painful episode in which the child’s parents, Denise Ferguson and Ralph Bulger, are invited to share her pain for our gratification.

Denise Fergus is “disgusted” that Detainment, a film about the crime, is being considered for an Oscar. “To have a child re-enact the final hours of James’s life before he was brutally murdered means we have to relive the all this again,” she says.

THREE OF THE BOYS WHO FOUND THE BODY OF TWO YEAR-OLD JAMES BULGER. L-R, STEPHEN GUNNIAN, JAMES RILEY AND HIS BROTHER TERENCE. Date: 15/02/1993

But reliving the horror as entertainment was ever so. The comments attributed to the murder of a two-year-old by two ten-year-olds read like billboard splashes to come see the show. An act of “unparalleled evil” – Trial Judge. “In almost any city, town or village more minor versions of the same events are becoming an almost everyday part of our lives” – Tony Blair. “FREAKS OF NATURE” – Daily Mirror.

Daily Mirror Bulger freaks
Via
A POLICE POSTER SEEKING INFORMATION ON THE MURDER OF TWO-YEAR OLD JAMES BULGER IS PLACED OUTSIDE MARSH LANE POLICE STATION IN LIVERPOOL.    Date: 15/02/1993
A POLICE POSTER SEEKING INFORMATION ON THE MURDER OF TWO-YEAR OLD JAMES BULGER IS PLACED OUTSIDE MARSH LANE POLICE STATION IN LIVERPOOL. Date: 15/02/1993

The Mirror uses its editorial to slam the “Bulger shame”. We hear that Denise Fergus’s “disgust and upset is understandable”. Of course it is. We know that. It is “about showing compassion… and respect for a woman who has suffered enough”. Why, then, is her pain front-page news? The Mirror says it is “not too late” for “Irish director [why is his nationality important?] to go cap in hand to apologise in person” to the Bulgers.

In which case he can join the queue behind the politicians, judges and tabloid Press…

Posted: 23rd, January 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Tabloids | Comment


James Bulger: tabloids bring up the body to attack Robert Thompson and stir Blair’s mob

Robert Thompson Jamie Bulger

 

The 1993 killing of James Bulger continues to occupy minds in the tabloids. Bulger, 2, was killed by children, ten-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. The latter has been in the news for years (see Anorak passim). But we’ve heard very little of Thompson. And we still haven’t. The news on the Star’s 11 page is is old. We read that when aged 18, Thompson told the parole board he was “desperately sorry” for his crime. Said Thompson;

“I do feel aware that I am a better person and I have had a better life and better education than if I had not committed the murder. There is obviously an irony in this. But it is part of my remorseful feeling as well. I personally wish Mr and Mrs Bulger  and their families to know that I am desperately sorry for what I did and aware of the enormity of it…

“I am deeply ashamed of having played a part in this horrible murder.”

So how does the Star report this news, triggered by yet another TV show on the crime? Is it by saluting the system that appears to work. Thompson has committed no crime since that heinous act. This is what the Government says are the aims of the law and justice system:

The legal system must uphold fairness in society: both in business and for individuals. We want to ensure justice for victims of crime and better rehabilitation for criminals, with a reduction in the rate of reoffending. The justice system must punish the guilty, protect our liberties and rehabilitate offenders.

Rehabilitation works, then. Or as the Star puts it: “KILLING JAMES ‘MADE ME A BETTER MAN’.” And in the Sun: “MURDERING BULGER GAVE ME BETTER LIFE – KILLER’S ASTONISHING BOAST.” Wrong. Badly wrong. And cruel on James Bulger and his parents.

 

Robert Thompson Jamie Bulger

Daily Star

 

Robert Thompson Jamie Bulger

The Sun

 

Tony Blair milked the crime. His role was pivotal in turning a horrendous and blessedly rare crime into a warning to us all. He turned a dead child into a symbol of what we had all become. The judge at the boys’ trial called the crime an act of “unparalleled evil”. The crime became a moral cudgel.

As the tabloids continue to fans the flames, let’s hark back to Blair’s hideous opportunism. Blair was shadow home secretary when he took political advantage of the killing. He hijacked a murder for his own ends. He said:

“The news bulletins have been like hammer blows struck against the sleeping conscience of the country, urging us to wake up and look unflinchingly at what we see. We hear of crimes so horrific they provoke anger and disbelief in equal proportions. The headlines shock, but what shocks us more is our knowledge that in almost any city, town or village more minor versions of the same events are becoming an almost everyday part of our lives. These are ugly manifestations of a society that is becoming unworthy of that name…

“We cannot exist in a moral vacuum. If we do not learn and then teach the value of what is right and what is wrong, then the result is simply moral chaos which engulfs us all.”

One crime said nothing more than the fact: children murder child. Now hear again the words of Robert Thompson:

“One Christmas we had chocolate  decorations on the tree and one night they went… After a while he [his father] told me to get undressed at the bottom of the stairs. And as I stood there naked he walked up to me with a pair of scissors.”

His father threatened to mutilate him.

He was a persistent truant. He was one of seven children living with a violent father and the who’d lost control. And Blair whipped up the crowd. He stole James Bulger’s corpse and repurposed it. It worked. Thompson:

“On my first appearance in magistrates court, a man ran in front of the van I was in to stop it. I was frightened the mob would get me. I wanted to say what had happened but was too frightened to accept the blame.”

“The courtroom was totally packed with reporters. I didn’t feel it was possible to make an admission of my involvement.”

The killers were treated well? Fairly? Justice was served. Conniving political ambition drove the mob. Media fanned the flames. The Bulgers should be allied to move on. They should not have their pain used to sell a story. That’s cruel. Horribly cruel.

Posted: 14th, November 2018 | In: Key Posts, News | Comment


Jon Venables: turning James Bulger’s murder into good and moral entertainment

Jon Venables, the child who killed a child, is back in the news. News is that he’s been caught in possession of child abuse images, just as he was in 2010. This means he’s back in prison.

The Sun leads with the news, saying how Venables’ probation officials spotted the images on a computer belonging to the 35-year-old who together with Robert Thompson killed James Bulger in February 1993. Over pages 4 and 5, we see the familiar photos: Venables at age 10 stood for the police cameras; his partner in crime Robert Thompson in the same pose; and that haunting CCTV picture of James Bulger being walked form a Merseyside shopping centre to his gruesome death.

Venables, of course, is not known by that name. He got a new name, one which cannot and should not be revealed. Right now he’s in a category A prison, his alleged offences under investigation. If it goes to court, the paper says Venables will be afforded a crown court trial. Venables keeps costing the State money. Last time in prison, we learn he was given around-the-clock protection, and “access to guitar lessons and a rowing machine”. Before his release in 2001, he was given “years of costly treatment”.

The crime was heinous, one that shocked us all. But the story is without end. The country does try to seek out Venables, much less exact vigilante justice. So what is the purpose of the Sun’s story? Is it to show that rehabilitation does not work. Surely not because Robert Thompson is “now hailed as rehabilitation success story”.

Venables served seven years of a life sentence for the murder of James Bulger. In 2001, aged 18, he was set free, albeit under license, able to be recalled for any misdemeanour. He got a new name, a job that enforced unsociable hours on just above minimum wage and a place to live. The press were forbidden by law from revealing any details on Venables’ new identity. But we only knew their real names because the judge told us the killers’ names in an adult court, moving on from ‘Child A’ and “Child B’. Was that right? Venables was ordered never to reveal his original identity to anyone. He must live a lie. Was that freedom?

Then, aged 27, Venables was back in prison, serving a two-year sentence for downloading and distributing indecent images of children. Now he’s back inside again. And the media continues to stoke the fires. Denise Fergus, James Bulger’s mother, is back on our screens, her pain clear to all. Her lot is to be a media celebrity dished up for us to gawp at. On Sky News, once more she is encouraged to revisit the horror. Our utmost sympathy must be with her and Ralph Bulger, James Bulger’s father. They have no need to forgive.

But why are we invited to stare? Why are we being invited to be entertained by their suffering?

It was ever so. The rare murder of a child by children might have been sui generis had the Labour spokesman on home affairs not milked the story. Tony Blair, for it was he, seized the moment to amplify the murder into a national crisis. Thompson and Venables’ crimes were “hammer blows struck against the sleeping conscience of the country, urging us to wake up and look unflinchingly at what we see”. He told us: “A solution to this disintegration doesn’t simply lie in legislation. It must come from the rediscovery of a sense of direction as a country… We cannot exist in a moral vacuum. If we do not learn and then teach the value of what is right and what is wrong, then the result is simply moral chaos which engulfs us all.”

There are other murders. But this one served a purpose. Blair tapped into the trial judge’s comments on it being a crime of  “unparalleled evil and barbarity”. If that was evil the likes of which had never been seen before manifest in our midst, then Tony Blair was the force for good.  And so it was that the murder of James Bulger became a totem for the nation to rally around. James Bulger, the innocent child, became a New Labour symbol and a political football. The crime was submerged in the age’s reaction to it. And there was the video and the pictures to promote the message on rolling news. They’re still being used in a crime packaged for our age.

 

Posted: 23rd, November 2017 | In: Key Posts, News, Tabloids | Comments (2)


James Bulger: John Venables is free again

jon venables free

HE’S coming out. One of James Bulger’s killers, Jon Venables, will be freed from prison. The parole board said the man who killed two-year-old James Bulger when he was 10 will be released from prison – he was put away for accessing child pornography on his computer. It also emerged that he had been arrested for drugs offences, had sex with a woman on a “parent” team looking after him and broke the teems of his parole by visting Merseyside.

James’s mother Denise Fergus tweeted:

“Venables is getting released. Just don’t believe what I’ve got to go through again.”

The Ministry of Justice spokesman says Venables can “be safely managed in the community”.

 “Their life licence lasts for the rest of their lives, and they may be recalled to prison at any time for breaching their licence conditions. Additionally, they will be subject to strict controls and restrictions for as long as their risk requires them.”

A huge debate erupts.

Posted: 4th, July 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)


Bulger Killer Jon Venables is back to put the Government on trial

A BBC ARTISTS DRAWING OF THE SCENE IN SOUTH SEFTON MAGISTRATES COURT AS TWO TEN YEAR OLDS  APPEARED CHARGED WITH THE MURDER OF JAMES BULGER.

JON Venables is back in the news. One of the two boys who murdered James Bulger, aged 2, is the subject of the Sun’s front-page story:

“Bulger killer’s secret release”

He’s out? The newspaper report begins:

“A feared plot to free James Bulger’s killer…”

So. Venables is not of prison. He’s inside. What’s the fear?

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 4th, July 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment


Jon Venables knew my mother: James Bulger’s killer unites country in hate

James Bulger - videograb

IS Venables “my dad?” So asks a “young mum” from the cover of the Daily Mirror. The answer should come in two words: Jeremy Kyle. This televised patenity test would pack them in.

The story is, however, thinner than the aforesaid Kyle’s prayer book:

A young mum fears James Bulger murderer Jon Venables could be the father of her son.

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Posted: 9th, March 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (11)


James Bulger: What do you do with Thompson and Venables’ ‘unparalleled evil’?

JON Venables is front-page news. One of two-year-of James Bulger’s two ten-year-old killers is the subject of the Sun’s story:

“BULGER KILLER GROOMED ME FOR SEX”

Groomed? Like paedos groom? Grooming is the word the UK authorities use to describe a paedophile’s online communication with a child they plan to meet and abuse.

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Posted: 3rd, March 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (4)


Jon Venables: those who tweeted his photo are charged with contempt of court

THIS was predictable. Anyone who tweeted photos allegedly of James Bulger’s killer Jon Venables are being charged with contempt of court. Bulger was two when 10-year-olds Venables and Robert Thompson killed him

Anyone who knows the case and who cares about justice should not have broadcast the pictures.

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Posted: 26th, February 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)


Pssst! Want to see what Jon Venables looks like now?

WHAT utter fool published a photo of one of James Bulger’s killers, Jon Venables, online?

There is a worldwide ban on publishing anything revealing Venables’ current identity.

Of course, the powers that be can’t say for certain that it is Venables. But the photo is of somebody. If it’s not him, that who would want to be that person? And if it isn’t him, Venables will need yet another new identity and possibly a new face should he ever be released from prison. That will cost.

A selection of reactions on Twitter:

 

Zac ‏@Zaka_No_7 – Hope this picture of Jon Venables is real & he gets done in. Deserves a slow & painful death. Not £100,000 a year of tax to keep him alive!

Ronnie ‏@RonnieLeiigh I hope somebody leaves Jon Venables on a train track, alive, with paint in his eyes and having been beat across the head with an iron bar.
James Moorhouse ‏@FromBellToBell – What’s sickening is the person who posted that pic of JonVenables will go to prison while that murderer walks free
James Bulger was two when he was murdered on 12 February 1993. Thompson and Venables were 10.
Laurence Lee represented Jon Venables. He recalls:

“The vast majority of Liverpool children probably had a worse upbringing than Venables. Thompson was the Pied Piper. Venables was transfixed by him. On the day they took James, Venables had been planning to go into school and pick up the class gerbils to look after during half-term. Thompson told him ‘Sod the gerbils, let’s go robbing’.

“They committed the most evil of acts but I said to Venables ‘If you were born in Las Vegas you would probably have ended up in the film industry’. I think it depends on circumstances as well as make-up. It’s about nature and nurture. Venables was brought up well, but he must have had a mental quirk. And it must also have been about the chemistry of the two of them together.”

As for himself, Mr Lee says: “Twenty years on I find it more difficult to believe I could have taken on the case – now that I’ve got three children.

“Once the case was over I had nightmares that I was being run over by a train. No case could tempt me back into court – until the bank manager phoned up and said ‘You’d better do some work’.”

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Image 3 of 12

Denise Bulger, mother of James Bulger the 2-year-old boy who went missing in the bootle area of Liverpool, breaks down at a police press conference in Liverpool.

Posted: 14th, February 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (4)


James Bulger: 20 years on Denis Fergus is still looking for ‘justice’

JAMES Bulger’s father has marked two decades since his young son was murdered by children with a book. In it he alludes to the remourse felt by John Venables. James Bulger’s mother, now remarried and called Denise Fergus, says she “wants justice”. As ever , what she says is broadcast in the mainstream media.

Venables and Robert Thompson, both aged 10, were convicted of killing two-year-old James in Bootle, Merseyside in 1993. They tortured him. Then they left him on a train track. The train hit him.

The tabloid angle has been clear from day one: Venables and Thompson are more guilty because they were children.

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Posted: 11th, February 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (16)


Jon Venables: Ralph Bulger’s new book sheds light on James Bulger’s killer

THE murder of James Bulger is still news. Ralph Bulger, father of the two-year-old murdered by twn-year-olds Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, has written a book. My James by Ralph Bulger and Rosie Dunn centres on the events of February 12, 1993. The parts about he and wife Denise Ferguson’s unbearable pain are horrible, like being invited to look at survivors’ slides from a fatal car crash. The parts about the child’s body and wounds are grim. They offer nothing new. What is interesting is the story of the criminal case, particularly how Jon Venables comes across: 

‘Is that you on that video, son?’ Ann Thompson demanded. ‘Nah, it’s got nothing to do with me,’ he replied. As if to prove his point, Robert went to a makeshift memorial near the railway in Walton and later took some flowers. When he got home he said to his mother: ‘Why would I take flowers to the baby if I had killed him?’ At another home nearby, Jon Venables told his mother, Susan: ‘If I’d seen them kids hurting the baby, I’d have kicked their heads in.’

Jon’s father, meanwhile, asked his son about the blue paint that was splattered on his mustard-coloured coat. He said that his friend Robert Thompson had thrown it at him.
I later learned that on the Wednesday evening an anonymous woman went to Marsh Lane Police Station. She said she was a friend of the Venables family and knew that the son, a boy called Jon, had skipped school with a friend called Robert Thompson on the Friday that James went missing. He had returned home with blue paint on his jacket.

Jon was having lunch when his mother held her son in a tight embrace and said: ‘I love you, Jon. I want you to tell the truth, whatever it might be.’ He started to cry, and just blurted out: ‘I did kill him.’ The boy looked across the room at the detectives and said: ‘What about his mum? Will you tell her I’m sorry.’ Jon continued to blame everything on Robert. He said they found James outside the butcher’s shop. He said it was his idea to take him, but it was Robert’s idea to kill him. They took him to the canal, where Robert planned to throw him in. James would not kneel down to look at his reflection in the water as they wanted, so Robert picked him up and threw him on the ground. This was how James had first injured his head. He said that James kept crying: ‘I want my mummy.’

‘He wanted him dead, probably,’ he responded. ‘Robert was probably doing it for fun because he was laughing his head off.’ For his part, though, Robert refused to admit any involvement in the attack. ‘He never actually told me the truth in the end – far from it,’ said DS Roberts. ‘He lied from the minute we started to interview him.’ ‘When he was charged, he had no problem with it. I suppose he knew that if he was found guilty he would have a better life than he would outside. I thought to myself, “This boy has caused so much misery and evil.” I didn’t look for the three sixes on the back of his head, but at that moment I thought he was the devil.’

It may oversimplify the arguments, but that to my mind makes them evil beyond belief.

You never do hear much of Robert Thompson…

Posted: 3rd, February 2013 | In: Books, Reviews | Comments (21)


Man mistaken for James Bulger killer Robert Thompson kills himself

HAVE James Bulger’s killers Jon Venables and Robert Thompson claimed another life? Or should we blame someone else? The Lancashire Telegraph delivers the headline:

Ramsbottom dad took his own life over Bulger killer accusations

The story runs that Ramsbottom’s Scott Bradley, 36, “endured months of abuse after malicious gossips accused him of being murderer Robert Thompson.”

Who to blame for his suffering?

She [his mother Sue] has told how her son’s life became a ‘living hell’ after a hate mob in the seaside village of Garlieston, Wigtownshire, Scotland, turned on him over a play about the sickening killing.

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Posted: 9th, August 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)


James Bulger: Robert Thompson gets compensation for News of The World hacking his phone

JAMES Bulger is back in the news. Denise Fergus, mother of the toddler murdered by Jon Venables an Robert Thomson in 1993, is upset that Thompson may be due a pay out for, reportedly, having his phone hacked by the News of The World.

Says Mrs Fergus, 44:

“It would be a terrible insult to James’ memory if the animal who murdered him was receive to a payment. He cannot be allowed to benefit from the wicked crime that he committed in robbing James of his life.”

So. What do to, then?

“If his phone was hacked that is wrong. But the only reason that they were interested in him was that fact that he murdered my son. If there is to be compensation paid then all the money should go to charity and if his lawyers had a shred of decency that’s what they would advise him to do. I’m challenging them now to say that any money involved in this will go to charity. Anything else would be outrageous.”

The only reason the hacks wer interested in John Prescott was because he was the deputy prime minister. Should he donate his pay out to the taxpayer?

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Posted: 19th, February 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (60)


James Bulger lies, Denise Fergus and sense on child crime from the Centre for Social Justice

KNOW that between 2005 and 2010, 346 children aged 10 and 11 were found guilty of sex crimes. The Sun produces this news under photos of James Bulger and his two killers, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, and the headline:

Children in rape Torture & Arson

You might have heard the news back in 2010, when the Daily Telegraph reported:

A total of 346 youngsters were either convicted in a court or handed a reprimand or formal warning, according to the Youth Justice Board.

Why has the Sun reproduced this news and passed it off as something new? The figures were produced by the Youth Justice Board in response to the arrests of two brothers in Edlington Yorkshire in April 2009. They were jailed for five years for subjecting their victims to torture and sexual humiliation.

So. Why is this news now? And why is it illustrated with pictures of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, the boys who murdered two-year-old James Bulger? Well, the Sun’s editor Dominic Mohan told the Leveson Inquiry that the biggest story of 2011 was James Bulger. So. The murdered toddler is once more presented to satisfy the readers’ needs. And where James Bulger is mentioned, his mother Denise Fergus is sure to feature.

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Posted: 25th, January 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (34)


Another crap story about Jon Venables

JAMES Bulger stories are popular with readers. Sun editor Dominic Mohan tells the Leveson Inquiry that the biggest-selling story of the past 18 months was about the killer of James Bulger – and by definition that of his two killer: Jon Venables and Robert Thompson.

Mindful of that, we turn to the Daily Star’s story:

JON VENABLES KEELS OVER…WITH CONSTIPATION

Tom Savage is in the toilet cubicle:

FATTY Jon Venables scoffed so much festive grub he needed emergency treatment for constipation.

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Posted: 11th, January 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (5)


James Bulger’s ‘Copycat’ Killers: Boys Try To ‘Kidnap’ Toddler From Liverpool Asda

THE SUN spots another James Bulger, the two-year-old child killed by ten-year-olds Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. Richrd Moriarty’s story begins:

Boys held for Bulger ‘copycat kidnap bid’

Thank goodess they were stopped.

Tragic James’ mum says: It’s chilling

Tragic James’s mum is Denise Fergus, the go-to source for emotionally led opinion.

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Posted: 17th, November 2011 | In: Reviews | Comments (6)


Jon Venables Will Be Released In June 2013: Then He’ll Disappear

JON Venabales, one of James Bulger’s killers, has lost his parole bid. He wanted to be released halfway through his two-year sentence for downloading child porn. Anorak now rounds up the media’s reactions to justice:

A Parole Board spokesman said:

“The Parole Board has now completed its review of the continued detention of Jon Venables in order to make recommendations to the Secretary of State as to his suitability for a move to open prison conditions or direct his release.

“A three-member panel of the board, chaired by a judge, held an oral hearing to review the case and come to a decision. That decision has been communicated to the two parties to the proceedings – the prisoner, the Secretary of State and also, via the Secretary of State, to the families of the victim in this case.”

He went on: “It is the policy of the board not to comment on or confirm its decisions or reasons in individual cases. Such information constitutes personal data within the definition of the Data Protection Act 1998 and its disclosure to unauthorised persons would contravene one or more of the data protection principles. It is the duty of the Secretary of State to notify appropriate authorities who may have a role in supervising an offender in the community of the outcome of the Parole Board hearing.”

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Posted: 27th, June 2011 | In: Reviews | Comments (5)


Ralph Bulger Makes Plea For Jon Venables Never To Be Released

JON Venables, one of James Bulger’s two killers, is back in the news. James Bulger’s father, Ralph Bulger, has made an victim impact statement to a parole board, who are considering the rehabilitation of Jon Venables. Mr Bulger says the murder of his son “transformed” him.

At Liverpool Crown Court, Mr Bulger’s solicitor, Robin Makin, says the move to release Venables was “crassly stupid”. He added:

“Ten years ago this month, in June 2001 a decision was made by the parole board to release Jon Venables. Trying to put somebody like Jon Venables back out into society in an area adjacent to Merseyside … was crassly stupid, it was never going to work.”

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Posted: 24th, June 2011 | In: Reviews | Comments (15)


James Bulger’s Killer Robert Thompson’s Lads’ Holiday: You Outraged Now?

JON Venables is in jail. So. It’s time to focus on Robert Thompson, the other of James Bulger’s killers. The Sun brings news of the child killer who killed as a child in its front-page headline:

“BULGER KILLER NO 2 GOES ABROAD ON LADS’ HOLIDAY.”

Thompson’s trip overseas follows news that Jon Venables went on a holiday to Norway following his release.

The Sun tells us:

Thompson used his phoney new ID on his passport for a secret “lads’ trip” to Europe.

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Posted: 6th, April 2011 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (46)


Jon Venables ‘Reunites’ With Robert Thompson In Tabloid Fantasy

JON Venables: Anorak reader MB directs us to Jon Venables story we missed. The People’s Nick Dorman delivers the news that Jon Venables “wants to be reunited with killer pal Robert Thompson”.

Venables and Thompson lilled James Bulger when they were age ten and their victim was 2. As we are told:

Evil Jon Venables is desperate to be reunited with his child killer pal Robert Thompson when freed from prison.

Well, so a source says. But the punctuation is such that it’s hard to see where what Venables is alleged to have said ends and what Dorman says begins:

Venables moaned: Losing Thommo as my mate has been a massive punishment in itself.

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Posted: 1st, August 2010 | In: Reviews | Comment


Jon Venables ‘Strikes’ And What We Will Never Know

JON Venables: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at one of James Bulger’s killers in the news: Deborah Orr call for more information and understanding as media titillates its readers with horror…

The Weekly Vice website hears that Venables has been charged with possessing 57 pornographic images of children and yells:

Jon Venables Strikes Again…

Well, no. He has not murdered a child again. He is in the market for depravity, allegedly, but he has not struck again.

Venables is not accused of making the indecent images. We can argue if downloading – or looking, as it was once called in pre-computer times – is as bad as creating such images. Is the latter a thought crime? Venables must not explain why he had such heinous images, allegedly, just answer the charge that he had them.

This website then goes on to publish details of the crime in gruesome detail, inviting readers to download the sick story?

In the Guardian, Deborah Orr, writes:

Jon Venables: what we’ll never learn

This is a sickening allegation in any circumstances. In the context of the terrible and notorious crime that Venables committed during his childhood, it is almost indescribably alarming and disturbing.

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Posted: 24th, June 2010 | In: Reviews | Comments (5)


Jon Venables: Denise Fergus, Justice, A Monster And Child Porn

JON Venables: One of James Bulger’s killers has been charged with downloading 57 child porn pictures. James Bulger was murdered in 1993. He was two years old. Jon Venables is now aged 27. He was detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure, and released on licence under a new identity in 2001. In February Venables was recalled to jail. Reporting restrictions meant no-one could report on why Venables was back in prison. Now those restrictions have been lifted.

The story so far

The news round-up…

Jon Venable’s is the Star and Express’ front-page “monster”.

The Mail calls it a “victory for Press freedom”.

Denise Fergus is James Bulger’s mother. She responds.

I simply want to see justice done… My solicitor has also been in touch with the Ministry of Justice, to make representations on my behalf and to raise a number of concerns I have about the way the case is to be handled.

“We are still awaiting a reply to that formal approach. I don’t want to say anything that could affect the proceedings. I’m prepared to wait and see what happens.”

James Bulger’s father speaks:

Robin Makin, the solicitor for James Bulger’s father, Ralph, sharply criticised the ministry of justice for its handling of the case since Venables’s recall.

“We consider that the way this has been handled since news of Jon Venables being recalled to custody has been a disaster. The public authorities ought to behave quite differently and in due course further details are likely to emerge of the mistakes that were made. Ineptitude and incompetence spring to mind,” he said.

Venables will answer for his alleged crimes at the Old Bailey in July. The case against him goes, as told by Gavin Millar QC, prosecuting:

He was downloading images on to his own computer. That is the basis of the case relating to the 57 photos. The distribution relates to the downloading of photographs using software that might have made them available to others if they knew the correct search term and passwords for a finite period.”

The story so far

Adding:

“There is no evidence to suggest that anyone did actually acquire the images through this route.”

The case goes on:

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Denise Bulger, mother of James Bulger the 2-year-old boy who went missing in the bootle area of Liverpool, breaks down at a police press conference in Liverpool.

Posted: 22nd, June 2010 | In: Reviews | Comment


Jon Venables: It’s Worse Than That – He’s Fat

REMEMBER when Jon Venables was big news – you know, the child killer? It was the run up to the election (remember that?) and the Government wanted to look better than inept? A look around for news throw up little:

The Sun says Venables is getting fat.

CHUBBY Jon Venables has been put on a low-fat diet and exercise regime by jail chiefs. James Bulger’s murderer, 27, has gorged on treats and shunned exercise since being recalled to jail in March over child porn allegations.

Paedo? Okay. Child killer? Yes. But get fat and you will shunned by decent society.

Burton Mail: “We must stick to harsh punishments”

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Posted: 8th, June 2010 | In: Reviews | Comments (5)


Madeleine McCann: After Labour And The Tories, Esther Rantzen Patronises Our Maddie And James Bulger

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCannHAVING buttonholed David Cameron’s Tories and Home Secretary Alan Johnson, the McCanns have overlooked the independent MPs. But help is here in the form of Esther Rantzen, wannabe MP for Luton South.

In today’s Mail, Esther Rantzen steps in to make herself part of the political drive to find Our Maddie. It’s an open letter to Kate McCann:

The headline trills:

Our hearts go out to you Kate, but the truth is it’s time to find some peace…

Madeleine McCann Is An Election Issue As The Home Office Wades In

Dear Kate,

Dear Mrs McCann.

Can it really be only three years since your little daughter Madeleine disappeared? It feels like a century ago when her three-year-old face first began to haunt us.

True enough.

Her angelic expression and solemn eyes engraved themselves on to our hearts; they reached out to us from posters that went up everywhere, from airports to village shops.

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Posted: 29th, April 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (12)