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. Denise was in court that day. 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. Our feelings haven't changed towards him. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 10, murdered him in cold blood. Boy A - Robert Thompson - was the shorter and more rounded of the two. There, he is terrorising a girl. ', 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 four who drove Suzanne to Romiley - Jean Powell (now Jean Gillespie), Bernadette McNeilly, Glyn Powell, and Anthony Dudson - were all found guilty of murder. Shed never been back but she clearly missed Liverpool and had tried to recreate the city in her new home, he recalls. One woman asked how James had injured his forehead. They probably weren't out to kill someone, but they were probably out to ruin someone else's happiness. Both had parents who had separated. 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. The couple was financially strained from the start, but Ann did what she could to make it work. Mr Venables said that the two boys had played truant together four times before, adding that he caught them twice. . Neil explained to him that the school they attended was special, and that Jon wouldnt be accepted. everyone blamed Thompson and. His father, Neil, an unemployed panel-beater, was separated from his mother but they lived only a mile apart, saw each other every other day, and took equal care of the children. One investigating police officer said: 'You could look into the eyes of Robert and knew you were looking at evil.' The James Bulger murder View gallery Venables was born on August 12, 1982. What a horror it all was. This story has no borders,' NBC correspondent Denis Murphy said. Mrs Thompson claimed she had been the victim of revenge attacks after her identity became known. Will you tell his mum I'm sorry?". They were sent home to their mother at one point, but after attempting suicide with overdoses, were placed back into care. Will you tell his mum I'm sorry?". Could they have planned to do it in advance? Jon lived in terror of losing his mother's love, yet he was also terrified of her. The pattern of bullying among the brothers, which had been noted by the Head mistress of the boys school, appeared to descend down the line, with the eldest Thompson brother beating the one just below him in age, and that brother beating the brother below him, in turn. "Contrary to what the papers will tell you, he is not a little urchin boy. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. Sitting in the new class was a chubby boy with a cherub's face - Robert Thompson. Regrettably, yet perhaps not entirely unforeseen, the cycle of abuse continued. He is broken- hearted over it. Ironically, Jon was the child who caused his parents least anxiety. He gets upset. They occasionally exchanged furtive glances. They played truant, they pinched sweets, they terrorised old ladies. 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. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? That's the thing that upsets me because obviously, where I was standing poor little James must have been not far . It is not known whether the boy watched any of his father's adult movies. . "My heart really goes out to them. 'Just mad. 'I even went up to the railway line because I knew the other boy had a den up there and was on the railway nearly all the time.'. He wore his dark hair short, almost a crew cut, which accentuated his ample forehead and blunt nose. Not that he had any need to borrow his dad's. Born on August 13th, 1982, Jon was the middle child of Neil and Susan Venables. A newsroom reporter who was not working on the case fended off transatlantic interview demands, saying that it was not enough that he had a Liverpool accent. A smell of bleach lingered on some of the tiled steps that led up to the front doors. The breaking point came when Jon was suspended from Broad Square after attempting to choke a classmate with a twelve-inch wooden ruler. However, given that the tension in the household was persistent throughout the most crucial of Jons formative years, the belief that he had moved through the ordeal entirely unaffected is questionable. . Left to his own devices Jon liked to spend his playtime in fairly sedentary ways. Thompson did what he often did, looked around, grabbing clumsily at his tongue. When Jon's parents gave a recent press interview, it was Mrs Venables who did most of the talking; the father just sat and cried. . Behind them eyes bore into them - from everyone on all sides, journalists, their parents, members of the public, and of course, theBulgerfamily. We still dont know why. 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. I wasnt on duty that day, so the very beginnings of the story washed over me. Grey seal pups on the beach at Horsey in Norfolk, as the pupping season draws to a close at one the UK's most important sites for the mammals. He's a good reader if he's interested in it. I am not sure if in fact he was seen by the school psychologist, but I did complete a form for him.. . Grey Heron. 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. He was jailed for two years before being granted parole again in July 2013. They have never come out of hiding. THE first time the boys set eyes on each other after they were arrested was in Preston crown court 3 1/2 weeks ago. 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. Venables was caught with 1,170 indecent photos of children on his laptop, the Old Bailey was told. Ann denied the physical abuse, but later admitted to being cruel to the boys at times. The bleached houses were peppered with burglar alarms, the shabby ones did not look worth the trouble. He did like to be liked, and loved to have friends, and he has got involved with the wrong person.". 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. Whatever problems she had in her own life, she was always there. But he liked collecting trolls, little doll-like creatures with ugly faces and spiky fluorescent hair. Good people asked the boys if they were lost or urged them to take "their baby brother" home as he cried for his mummy. 'The attitude when you live where we live is that you have to be tough or else you don't survive,' she said. JON Venables's family was far from affluent, but it was not as close to the breadline as Robert's. In court, he hid his face again.
Susan Venables - People Directory - 192.com wo. As a grim portrait of abuse, drunkenness and neglect emerged, the hatred and loathing for Robert Thompson and Jon Venables was also turned on their parents. James mother Denise Fergus has been saying this for a long time, but still we hoped that the boy who savaged a tiny child to death could become a man safe to be in our midst. This time, curiosity took the upper hand: 'I wanted to see what it was like,' he said. It is just heartbreaking.". Susan and neil venables. It is just heartbreaking.". rk ye. Once Robert shared with him a tin of Roses chocolates which he had poured surreptitiously into his coat pocket. Just something to do.'. He would steal objects that he neither needed nor wanted, then chuck them away in the street. . Both of them struggled at school and had been lumped into the year below their age. He always had plenty of friends. They would hang around the video shop in Walton Village where the shop girl was pleased to have their company. Instead, she was involved in an ITV documentary with Sir Trevor McDonald that will air on Thursday. "Just TV programmes and little things remind me of the good times we had together . kl. The experience gave Jon renewed confidence, and the second time they sagged off together he suggested it. I got on with my job, but months later the impact of that trial had sunk in and a difficult, tearful, confusing year followed for me. The prosecution, led by Richard Henriques QC, made its case quite simply really, using the journey they took James on to tell the story. Mrs Venables walked around the area for hours, searching for him. Neither gave evidence to the court, but were found guilty after an officer told how Venables admitted the murder, saying, "We did it. His mother cared about him. But Robert was stuck in Walton with his older brothers and the baby. Please review our, You need to be a subscriber to join the conversation. That means he is currently 35-years-old. At the time Ann Thompson pleaded for her son to be left alone and revealed that she and her other children had been forced to move house nine times in eight years. As their sweet voices rang around the courtroom, Venables hid his face in his oversized blazer and cried. As a new documentary is set to air on ITV, the haunting words of Jon Venables' parents have resurfaced. Only a handful of officials and close family members know their true identities. yet, as Venables is back behind bars.
Susan Venable: 141 records - CVs, addresses, photos, cars - uFind.name "All he said when we've said 'Why didn't you run away?' 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. Thompson got better opportunities there than if hed been walking the streets in Walton, says the author. 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. .
Denise Fergus remains convinced both will always be a danger to children. A pathologist later said that there were so many injuries - 42 in total - that not one could be isolated as causing the little boy's fatal wound. James Bulger would now be weeks away from his 23rd birthday. She was living in secrecy but always felt that she was walking around with a huge sign: mother of Bulger killer, above her head. James Bulgers mother Denise claims that she managed to track down Thompson six years ago, planning to confront him but instead stared at him from the opposite side of the street, full of rage but unable to act. They were drawn to one another quickly. Only two people can answer the question, and even their ability is doubtful. Aged 10, he was barely literate. "Youngsters are usually tried in a youth court, [Thompson and Venables] were tried in an adult court. Murder of James Bulger. The government will be required to respond within 14 days if as the petition achieves more than 100,000 signatures. Jon was slim in build and taller than Robert, just over five feet. Without anyone in the family to turn to for support, he had to look outside for people whose swaggering aggression he could emulate.