James Bulger’s mom: I’ve never had justice
The parents of the murdered toddler don’t believe his killers have been punished enough
HIS mother lovingly lays a place for him at the table every Christmas – patterned plates set on a gold place mat flanked by polished silverware and topped with a red cracker. But his chair will remain empty – as it’s been for the past 25 years.
“James is never far from conversation anyway, whether it’s Christmas or not,” his mother, Denise Fergus (50), tells ITV journalist Trevor McDonald about her son, who would’ve turned 28 this year. “It’s like he’s still here.” Her voice is hard but her eyes still look haunted almost three decades since her two-year-old son, James Bulger, was snatched by two boys at a shopping centre near Liverpool in the UK.
Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were only 10 years old when they tortured and murdered the little boy in one of the most infamous murders in British criminal history.
“The day I stop speaking about him is the day I’m going to join him,” Denise tells McDonald in a heart-rending new documentary, James Bulger: A Mother’s Story.
James’ broken body was found on a train track near Liverpool two days after he went missing from his mother’s side on 12 February 1993 at New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Merseyside.
A security video from the mall showed James leaving with two older boys. A woman recognised Venables, which led police to his friend Thompson.
Forensic tests later confirmed both boys had blue paint on their clothing – the same paint that had been found on James’ body.
Venables and Thompson – then known as “Boy A” and “Boy B” – had blood on their shoes and DNA tests matched blood on Thompson’s shoe to James’.
The wide-eyed boys, the youngest accused murderers in Britain in the 20th century, appeared at South Sefton Magistrates’ Court in Bootle. Seated in a dock that had to be raised so they could see over the edge, the pair – who both pleaded not guilty – were tried as adults.
After a harrowing trial the boys were sentenced to remain in custody until age 18 for what the judge described as an act of “unparalleled evil and brutality”. They were released in 2001 with brand-new identities.
“I’ve never had justice for James,” Denise says in the new documentary. “I did say that if they weren’t punished properly then they’d go on to reoffend – and that’s exactly what’s happened.”
NOW 36, Venables was sentenced to 40 months behind bars in February after being caught with child pornography and a so-called “paedophiles’ manual”.
This marks the second time since his release that the boy killer has been found with disturbing material. In 2010 he pleaded guilty to downloading and distributing child pornography and spent two years behind bars.
After Venables’ latest court appearance James’ father, Ralph Bulger, and Denise dubbed the 40-month sentence a farce. “Forty months is a joke,” Ralph (51) said. “It’s an insult to the family.
“We’ve got to watch this sexual deviant. We know what he’s capable of. He’s just waiting for another victim. Let’s just make sure there are no more victims.”
Ralph has now gone to court to challenge Venables’ lifelong anonymity, saying he poses a lifelong risk of serious harm to children.
According to the Daily Mail, Venables had lived a relatively normal life under his new identity since his 2010 stint in prison, with only police and his probation workers knowing who he really is.
But in July 2017 he started trawling the web for clips and photos showing babies and little boys being brutally abused.
Shockingly, on a day when he was to be assessed by probation officers, he downloaded more than 1 000 such images onto a laptop he’d stashed behind the headboard of his bed.
This was where he’d managed to hide a “paedophiles’ manual” explaining how children can be trained to endure increasingly extreme forms of sexual abuse.
After being caught in November last year, Venables appeared penitent. “This is my own fault,” he said. “I’ve let people down again. I’ve had stupid urges.”
During the boys’ original trail Thompson was painted as the instigator of the gruesome killing who’d led Venables at every turn.
But unlike Venables, Thompson (now 36) hasn’t reoffended since his release aged 18.
In 2006 it was reported Thompson had settled well into his local community with a brand-new identity in northwest England, The Mirror reports. He’s also believed to be in a long-term relationship with a man who knows about his past.
The latest in the appalling saga comes just after lawyer Laurence Lee, who represented Venables in 1993, dubbed him a “convincing little liar”.
“When I first set eyes on him he looked like an eight-year-old. He was very polite. I thought he couldn’t be involved in something as heinous as this. He was such a convincing little liar.
“When he was found out he broke into hysterical tears. It was then I realised he was capable of such a heinous crime.
“He’s had his chances – anonymity has been wasted on him.”
Despite this, the solicitor is certain his former client’s new identity will never be made public.
“If there was no anonymity we’d be returning to the mob rule scenes back in 1993. And that’s why his anonymity won’t be lifted, but I have every sympathy.”
DENISE has said she was initially relieved when she found out her son had been seen walking off with two young boys. “I had a sigh of relief, to be honest with you, because he wasn’t with an adult, he was with two kids.
“I thought, kids aren’t going to harm another child, so that’s what kept me sane really, thinking I was almost positive I was going to get James back alive and well.”
When she found out what had happened to her son she fainted.
One police officer described seeing the distraught mom “dropping to the floor in total distress”, while another branded it “the worst thing I’ve ever seen”.
During the trial it emerged the 10-year-olds had done unthinkable things to James. They threw blue paint into his left eye, kicked him and threw bricks and stones at him.
They put batteries in the toddler’s mouth and, according to police, might have inserted some into his anus, although none was found there during the autopsy.
The boys then dropped a 10kg iron bar on James. Pathologist Dr Alan Williams testified he’d counted 22 bruises, splits and grazes on James’ face and head, and 20 more wounds on his body – so many that none could be isolated as the blow that killed him.
Thompson and Venables laid their victim’s body across railway tracks, weighing his head down with rubble, hoping a train would hit him and his death would look like an accident.
When they left, his body was cut in half by a train.
Detective Phil Roberts, who interviewed the boys after the murder, says he’ll never believe they could be anything but evil. “As far as I’m concerned, that day I stared evil in the face. I think Thompson was in charge but they both attacked James. They were a match made in hell. A freak of nature.
“They went out that day to kill – I truly believe that. And if they hadn’t been caught I fear they would’ve struck again.
“Pure evil. I’ll never change my mind about that.” S