The look on his face as he laughed about the murder will stay with me forever
PRISONER TELLS OF ATTACK
James Heap says Venables bragged that killing the two-year-old was “easy... just like going to the shop”.
Ex-lag James said: “The look on Venables’ face as he laughed about the murder will stay with me forever.
“He’s got this mad face when he grins, the most evil little face you’ve ever seen.
“That was enough for me – I didn’t want to hear any more of that.”
James punched Venables in the face and says: “It made me want to kill him.”
He spoke after Venables was last week sent back to jail for having paedophile images – and he backed calls for the killer’s new identity to be revealed. James also revealed how Venables: Almost died in a second attack just two months after the punching. Recited horrific details of his crime. Refused to show any remorse. Lied that he was inside for burglary. Threatened younger boys he would “go after” their family when he was released.
Venables was 11 and James was 14 when they clashed at the Red Bank secure unit on Merseyside.
James, now 39 and from Birmingham, spoke in chilling detail about his encounters with Venables back in 1994.
SHOCKED
He said: “I asked him what he was in for and he told me burglary. But a few days later I found out who he was and what he was really in for. I was shocked.
“He was playing on a games console when I said to him: ‘Why the hell did you do that to that kid?’
“He just laughed. I said ‘What’s so funny?’ But he just kept laughing.
“I punched him in the mouth. To laugh about that is just sick. He talked about how he took the kid and how he was too good or too clever for anyone to see him. I remember he said: ‘I done it easy’.
“He said it like it was a normal thing to do, like going to buy a newspaper. Like it was easy to him and nothing to him.
“It was like it didn’t matter – like he was proud. There wasn’t any remorse on his face, not one bit. No shame, nothing.
“It was mental. You’d have to hear him and see the face on him when he was saying it to be able to believe it.”
James was on remand for burglary. Other youths at Red Bank shared his fury and Venables came under attack again.
Recalling the second episode, James said: “He was in the video room and a lad went in, grabbed him from behind and pulled him down. He had hold of him by his neck on the floor and wouldn’t let go.
“Venables went purple, he couldn’t breathe and his eyes were popping out.
“I was thinking ‘f ****** hell, he’s really doing it.’ Another 20 seconds and I think he’d have gone. Suddenly one of the staff came walking up the corridor, saw what was going on and pressed the riot bell.
“Loads of staff came and started dragging the lad off by his neck. He wouldn’t let go, but in the end they got him off.”
Despite being a target, Venables liked to lord it over younger detainees – and made vile threats about what he would do to relatives, James said.
He added: “He’d threaten other kids. He’d be going ‘you watch till I get out, I’ll s**g your sister, I’ll kill your mother’. ”
Venables spent eight James Heap hit Venables years at Red Bank. But James claimed it was a pampered existence. The unit was kitted out with a pool table, football tables, a games room with a Super Nintendo games console, a TV and video player and even a full-size snooker table.
James suggested Venables was given special treatment and a string of privileges, including his own Game Boy. He went on: “People think Venables has been punished for his crime, but it wasn’t punishment, it was privileged.
“James Bulger’s parents would have been sickened if they’d seen his life in there. They’d be so heartbroken. They’ve got no justice whatsoever. He didn’t serve a sentence, he sat there eating ice cream and jelly, watching videos and laughing his head off while playing computer games.
“It was like a holiday camp to him. He was given special treatment and had everything in his room – music, a radio, his Game Boy. He was the
Venables has got the most evil face... he said killing tot was easy, like going to shop JAMES HEAP WHO BATTERED KILLER IN DETENTION CENTRE