MPs must honour James’ memory by telling truth about how he was failed
Mum’s plea ahead of debate today
This is a landmark day we’ve waited 30 years for
THE mother of murdered toddler James Bulger has urged MPs to “honour my son’s memory” during a landmark parliamentary debate today about failings in the case.
Denise Fergus has tirelessly campaigned for a public inquiry for the last seven years.
Now MPs will finally address what she calls a “catalogue of failings” in the handling of her two-yearold son’s murder by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables in February 1993.
She said: “I want James’s truth to echo around the Commons.”
During the session, MPs will discuss the decision to only hand James’s killers sentences in juvenile courts before reducing the sentences later.
Denise also wants to know why James being sexually assaulted and his killers’ attempt to kidnap another boy were not considered during sentencing and parole hearings.
Denise, alongside husband Stuart Fergus, will be special guests in the public gallery as George Howarth – the Labour MP for Knowsley – opens the debate.
She said: “This is a landmark day that we have waited 30 years for. James isn’t here any more so I have to be his voice, and this is the closest he’ll get to being heard in Parliament.
“For 30 years, I’ve carried the unbearable weight of James’s absence. Today I want people to know we need to scrutinise errors that were made.
“Justice hasn’t been served but this debate is an opportunity to change that.” Denise first launched a petition calling for an inquiry into James’s death in 2017, amassing 220,000 signatures.
She said: “I want to thank all the people who backed our petition.
“Without their support we could not have got to this point.
“I urge all our MPs to realise it’s not too late to rectify decisions that have ruined our lives and back a public inquiry.”
James was abducted from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside. His body was found two miles away on a railway line in Walton, Liverpool. The 10-year-old killers served eight years in a young offenders’ institute before being released on licence in 2001.
Venables has reoffended twice over child abuse images and Denise has campaigned to keep him in jail. Last year the parole board ruled him unfit to be released.
DENISE FERGUS ON THE DEBATE ON JAMES’S CASE