On how to deal with killers who happen to be children

IF YOU had heard the recording of the call in isolation, you would probably have bristled immediately at the rude, insulting, disrespectful tone of the demand; two giggling, screeching teenage girls tell a harassed 999 operator to hurry up and arrange a police lift back to their children’s home in Hartlepool.

When you know the context of this call, however, it becomes utterly chilling. The giggling 13 and 14-year-old have just tortured a vulnerable, six-stone alcoholic to death, stripping her naked, battering her with an array of domestic weapons, including a television and a coffee table. When, after many hours, Angela Wrightson’s frail body inevitably gave out, the pair demanded a lift home from the police; it is both surreal and shocking. It takes a while to compute that the reason they call the police is they genuinely don’t understand the gravity or depravity of their actions, forcing us once again to confront one of the most difficult questions of modern times: what should we do with child murderers?

Are these girls evil? Are they mad or bad? If they are bad, were they born that way or did is their upbringing make them so? Can they ever be rehabilitated? Should we even try? The questions are almost too complex and uncomfortable to contemplate. But contemplate them our legal system must, in as dispassionate a manner as possible; we need justice to be dispassionate because we, as a society, cannot be.

Like most people who read the details of this case I had to dig awfully deeply inside myself to find even a crumb of sympathy for either of these two girls. But we must force ourselves to remember one key fact: they were, they are, children. And that matters.

It matters when, like the murderers of toddler James Bulger, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson (both of whom were aged 10 at the time) and at least one of the girls in this case, the perpetrators had terrible, savage upbringings. It also matters when, as in the case of Will Cornick, the 16-year-old from Leeds who in 2014 calmly stabbed his teacher to death in front of his Spanish class, they come from loving, middle-class backgrounds.

The fact they are children means we must try to believe that rehabilitation is not only possible, but also advisable. And thankfully it is the legal system, and not the court of public opinion or the media that makes sure we

‘‘ It was interesting to see that the judge in the Wrightson case had clearly learned lessons from the past, even if the public had not

keep trying, even when we are so disgusted and outraged.

You couldn’t help but think back to the horror of the Bulger case when you read about Ms Wrightson’s murder, of course; there were so many glaring and indeed haunting similarities. It was interesting to see, however, that the judge in the latter case had clearly learned lessons from the past, even if the public had not.

Back in 1993, Venables and Thompson were named and their pictures appeared in newspapers across the globe. The girls in 2016 were afforded anonymity.

Throughout the Bulger trial angry mobs turned up to greet the van that brought the boys to court each day, shouting and banging on the sides, telling them they should be hung for what they had done - protesting about the death of one child, demanding the death of another two. During the Wrightson case the judge actually halted proceedings, taking the trial behind closed doors after equally angry online mobs made threats against the two perpetrators on social media - the modern version of a crowd banging on the side of a van.

The judge was right to take such action. No sentence will bring Ms Wrightson back. And now that guilt has been established, the onus should be on the penal system to ensure rehabilitation is the first priority.

Both girls, now 15, were given 15 years in custody. They certainly deserve to be starved of their liberty, and make no mistake, this is a severe sentence. In comparable countries such as Germany, the maximum sentence in such a case would be 10 years. Which approach is right? I honestly don’t know.

What I do know is that it’s important to offer such children intense treatment, therapy and care, the chance to live a useful life in the future.

Again, that is why we need a dispassionate legal system - to take the difficult, sometimes humane decisions that the angry mob inside all of us cannot bring ourselves to contemplate.

Whether this approach works is debatable; where Jon Venables went on to be a sex offender after release, Robert Thompson apparently lives a quiet, law-abiding life under a new identity. Will the two Wrightson murderers follow the example of Venable or Thompson? Only they will be able to answer that. But as a society we must find it within ourselves to want them to succeed. That’s what separates our actions from theirs.