James was my son but they wouldn’t tell me what was in TV show.. it was too biased towards killers
Bulger mum blasts documentary
THE mother of murdered James Bulger has blasted TV bosses for failing to consult her over a documentary about her son’s death that was “too sympathetic” to his killers.
Denise Fergus had to wait until the programme went out to learn of its revelations about her little boy’s case at the same time as millions of other viewers.
And she was reduced to tears as James Bulger: The New Revelations raked over details of how two-year-old James was tortured to death by 10-year-olds Jon Venables and Robert Thompson in 1993.
She was furious that the Channel 5 show aired Thompson’s confidential parole papers, which her own legal team had been denied permission to see.
Denise, 51, said: “I didn’t know what to expect. I was on pins all day before [the broadcast]. I didn’t know what I was going to see or hear in it. I felt like I was an outsider looking in on someone else’s story. I was fuming. He is my son, not theirs, and I was not allowed to see what they were saying about him.
“I feel like they consider him their property. He is not a property. He was a little boy and he is mine.”
Denise says she has complained to show bosses about the documentary, which she believes was too sympathetic towards the murderers.
And she is also demanding an inquiry into how the confidential parole papers were broadcast on the show this week.
They contained statements from Thompson, who told of his “shame and revulsion” over the Liverpool murder as he made a bid for freedom in 2001.
Denise said: “Why were they allowed to see them and we weren’t? I want to know how they got them.”
The Probation Service was not available for comment last night but it is understood bosses do not believe the leak came from their offices. Denise also felt the programme was biased towards the killers. She said: “I just felt it was all one-sided. They tried their best to get sympathy for them two.”
And she felt it went into too much grisly detail, adding: “When they started going into detail about what they did to James, that’s when I had to leave the room. People know the details. They don’t need to hear it all the time. They didn’t have to do that.
“I kept telling myself, ‘Don’t break, carry on watching, just get through this’, but it got too much in the end.”
After watching with husband Stuart, 43, at their home in Kirkby, Merseyside, Denise tweeted: “I’m upset, fuming with the one-sided sympathy with the evil killers of my beautiful son.” Yesterday she added: “I think they’d already made their Mum Denise has lashed out at TV bosses minds up about what they were going to show.”
Thompson and Venables, now 36, were convicted 25 years ago this month over the murder of James and released on licence aged 18 with new secret identities. Thompson has led a largely unknown life since his release in 2001. Venables is serving 40 months for possessing child abuse images, his second term for the offence.
Channel 5 did not comment last night but it is understood the decision not to allow Denise to see an advance copy of the show was taken after legal advice.
A spokeswoman for Denise said she only discovered the programme was being made three weeks before broadcast. After contacting the producers, she was then invited to “contribute”, by which time she felt it was too late.
I felt like I was an outsider looking in on someone else’s story. I was fuming DENISE FERGUS, MUM OF MURDERED JAMES BULGER