Murder of James Bulger ( 3 years old_

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Murder of James Bulger

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James Bulger


James Bulger
Born
16 March 1990(1990-03-16)
Liverpool, Merseyside, England
Died
12 February 1993 (aged 2)
Walton, Liverpool, England
Cause of death
Murdered By Jon Venables and Robert Thompson​

James Patrick Bulger (16 March 1990 – 12 February 1993) was the victim of abduction and murder. His killers were two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. The murder took place in Merseyside, England.[1]
The murder of a child by two other children caused public shock, outrage and grief, particularly around Merseyside.
James disappeared from the New Strand Shopping Centre, where he had been with his mother Denise, on 12 February 1993 and his mutilated body was found on a railway line at Bootle on 14 February. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, then 10, were charged with James's murder on 22 February 1993 and remanded in custody.
On 24 November 1993, the two boys, by then 11, were found guilty of murder at Preston Crown Court. The trial judge sentenced them to be detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure, with a recommendation that they should be kept in custody for "very, very many years to come". Shortly after the trial, Lord Taylor of Gosforth, the Lord Chief Justice, ordered that the two boys should serve a minimum of ten years, which would have made them eligible for release in February 2003 (they had been charged with James's murder on 22 February 1993), when they would be 20.
The popular press felt the sentence was too lenient, and the editors of The Sun newspaper handed a petition bearing 300,000 signatures to Home Secretary Michael Howard, in a bid to increase the time spent by both boys in custody. This campaign was successful, and in 1995 Howard announced that the boys would be kept in custody for a minimum of 15 years, meaning that they would not be considered for release until February 2008, by which time they would be 25.
In 1997, the Court of Appeal ruled that Howard's decision to set a 15-year tariff was unlawful, and the Home Secretary lost his power to set minimum terms for life-sentence prisoners under 18. The High Court and European Court of Human Rights have ruled that politicians can no longer decide how long a life sentence prisoner can remain behind bars.
Thompson and Venables were released on a life licence in June 2001, after serving eight years, when a parole hearing concluded that public safety would not be threatened by their rehabilitation.[2] An injunction was imposed after the trial preventing the publication of details about the boys, for fear of reprisals. The injunction remained in force following their release, so their new identities and locations could not be published.
Contents

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• <LI class=toclevel-1>1 The murder <LI class=toclevel-1>2 The trial <LI class=toclevel-1>3 Appeal and release <LI class=toclevel-1>4 Subsequent controversies <LI class=toclevel-1>5 2008 memorial appeal <LI class=toclevel-1>6 See also <LI class=toclevel-1>7 References
• 8 External links

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The murderJon Venables and Robert Thompson were truanting from school on 12 February 1993. They were in their final year of primary school at Walton St Mary Church of England Primary School.[3]
That day, in the New Strand Shopping Centre, Bootle, they attempted to walk off with a young child. They had succeeded in luring a two-year-old boy from his mother, and were taking him out of the shopping centre when she noticed him missing, ran outside, and called him back. For this, the boys were charged with attempted abduction; the charge was dropped when the jury failed to reach a verdict.

CCTV footage of James Bulger being kidnapped by Venables and Thompson (above Bulger), recorded on shopping centre CCTV


That afternoon, James Bulger (often mentioned as "Jamie Bulger" in press reports, he was never called "Jamie" by his family), from nearby Kirkby, went with his mother Denise to a nearby shopping centre. While there, Mrs Bulger realised her son had disappeared. The two boys had taken him by the hand and led him out of the precinct. This moment was captured on a CCTV camera at 15:39.
The boys took Bulger on a 2½ mile (4 km) walk. They led him to a canal, where he sustained injuries to his head and face, after apparently being dropped to the ground. Later, a witness reported seeing Bulger being kicked in the ribs by one of the boys, to prod him along.
During the walk, the boys were seen by 38 people.[citation needed] Some reported there was bruising on Bulger's face, while others reported that he was laughing, the boys seemingly alternating between hurting and distracting him. A few members challenged the older boys, but they claimed they were looking after their younger brother, or that he was lost and they were taking him to the police station. They led Bulger to a railway line near the disused Walton & Anfield railway station on Walton Lane.
From facts at trial, at this location one of the boys threw blue modelling paint on Bulger's face. They kicked him and hit him with bricks, stones and a 22 lb (10 kg) iron bar. They then placed batteries in his mouth . False reports claiming the batteries were pushed up his anus were spread by a chain letter[4]. The letter also claimed that Bulger's fingers were cut off using scissors; this is also untrue. James suffered skull fractures as a result of the iron bar being struck around his head; this wound is believed to have caused his death.
Before they left him, the boys laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, in hopes that a train would hit him and make his death appear an accident. Two days later, on 14 February, Bulger was discovered; a forensic pathologist testified that he had died before his body was run over by a train.
As the circumstances surrounding the death became clear, tabloid newspapers compared the killers with Myra Hindley and Ian Brady who had committed the Moors Murders during the 1960s. They denounced the people who had seen Bulger but not realised the trouble he was in as the "Liverpool 38" (see Kitty Genovese, bystander effect). The railway embankment upon which his body had been discovered was flooded with hundreds of bunches of flowers: one of these floral tributes, a single rose, was laid by Thompson. Within days, he and Venables were arrested, after an investigation led by Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby of the Merseyside Police.
Forensics tests confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as on Bulger's body. Both had blood on their shoes; blood on Thompson's shoe was matched to Bulger through DNA tests.
The boys were charged with Bulger's murder on 22 February 1993. They were the youngest people charged with murder in England and Wales during the 20th century.