TRIGGER WARNING: This is about a very violent and shocking case of murder, and contains references to sexual assault and graphic violence against children. Some people may find this content upsetting. Also, this refers to a very real tragedy that left the loved ones of the victim scarred for life, so please bear in mind to consider with some sensitivity.
In February 1993, a woman called Denise Bulger was in a butcher's in New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Merseyside, which is part of the city of Liverpool in North West England. She was with her two year old son, James, when for a moment she was distracted whilst getting some change from her purse. When she looked up, her son had gone.
She reported him missing to the police, but two days later the worst was discovered. The two year old James was found on a railway track, severed in two by a passing train whose driver had doubtless not noticed the small figure lying in the way as they'd gone along that stretch of railway line. Needless to say, Denise Bulger, his father and his siblings were all devastated.
On examination of the body by the forensic pathologist, it was discovered that James' death had been caused not by the passing train, but by several severe injuries to his head. Be warned, this is pretty graphic.
TW ******
James had been kicked and punched repeatedly, hit in the head with stones and bricks thrown at him, paint had been thrown in his eyes. His clothes had been removed below the waist, and his foreskin had been forced back. Batteries had been forced into his mouth, and allegedly his rectum (though this is disputed, and none were found lodged here by police).
The most severe injury he'd suffered from had been a blow from a fish plate, also known as a splice bar, or a joint bar in the U.S. This is a large piece of steel used to anchor separate rails on railway track together, and as such, the injury suffered would've been extreme. It seems highly likely that this was the fatal blow, though he suffered so many that it was uncertain whether he was already fatally injured.
He'd then been weighted down by the culprit, who'd left the area shortly before the train had passed.
*********
Upon realization that they were dealing with a murder case, the police began further investigation and questioning witnesses. Initial assumptions were that James had been kidnapped by an adult abductor, possibly one with a history of abuse of children. However, it was soon discovered by examining CCTV tapes that the last footage of James showed two young boys not much older than eight leading him out of the shopping centre. Many witnesses confirmed that they had in fact seen a child fitting the description being led around by two boys aged about nine or ten.
Several boys who'd been playing truant on the same day were interviewed. Eventually, the police found the suspects, who much to their shock, turned out to indeed be two ten year old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. Both boys went to the same school as one another, and lived less than a couple of miles from the railway line where James had been found.
Both Thompson and Venables were questioned and after several minutes of lies, tears and panicking, both boys admitted to the crime, were charged, tried at Preston Crown Court, found guilty and sentenced to be detained 'At Her Majesty's Pleasure'. The outrage was so great that angry mobs threatening to kill them would form up wherever their presence was known.
They remained in separate young offenders institutes until they reached the age of 18 in 2001. Much to public outrage, they were released, and little was heard of them for another ten years.
While Robert Thompson seems to have been the smarter of the two, and *hopefully* reformed, remaining anonymous, Jon Venables has repeatedly allowed his cover to be blown, requiring the law to create a new identity for him every time, and has even been arrested for possession of child pornography. Twice.
Furthermore, a global injunction has been put out, banning the posting online of pictures of Venables or information on Venables' whereabouts, descriptions, etc. Obviously this is to prevent lynch mobs to start kicking off again, but that's another story. (I discourage anyone seeking these out, and will not describe them or point anyone to them for legal reasons.)
So how did this happen? How did two seemingly normal ten year old boys transform into brutal child killers?
Robert Thompson was born on August 23rd 1982. According to a social worker who'd had contact with the Thompsons, Robert's father had been a violent alcoholic who'd walked out on the family. He had two younger brothers and four elder brothers, and was alleged to have experienced conflict and violence with them as well, with some of them living in fear of one another.
Jon Venables was born on August 13th 1982. His teacher had reported that his school work was suffering, and would engage in strange and disruptive behaviour such as fighting with other children, ripping classwork off the walls, sticking paper on his face and hiding under chairs and desks so that people couldn't physically reach him. He was reported to cut holes in his socks, and even participated in self-harm with scissors. He'd even got in trouble trying to strangle another boy with a ruler.
During their time in school, both boys came across each other and befriended one another, when Jon Venables arrived at the same school as Robert Thompson, having been expelled from his previous school. The effect could very well be summed up as like pouring petrol on a bonfire, though nobody could've imagined at the time that two boys would commit such a violent murder of a toddler.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMzfoX8rsdw&t=32s (34:03-34:50)
Before the murder, the two boys had a reputation around their neighborhood that preceded them. Their neighbours knew both for playing truant, for shoplifting sweets and disappearing together during the night. Both came from difficult backgrounds, and were not getting the help that they needed.
'People will say "well, there are thousands of children who have these negative experiences and they don't all go on to do this", and when they say that, what they are implicitly wanting you to accept is that there isn't really the connection between those background factors and this terrible event. Well, of course not everyone goes on to do this because for many people there are other mediating factors in their experience. They come across particular teachers in school, they come across other friends, they come across people from other families that provide alternatives. The key thing about the children that killed James Bulger is that they didn't find those external sources of correction, they found each other.'
Paul Britton, Consultant and Forensic Psychologist.
I want you to cast your mind back to my critique of the 'Respect Toolkit for Male Survivors' that I covered on June 15th.
Now, take note of this particular quote I took, highlighted in the article:
"Women suffer mental illness at roughly the same rate as men, but almost none commit large scale violence."
Now, the reason that I bring this back to the case of Thompson and Venables is because mental illness affects both victims and abusers. I've had mental illness myself in the past, I've cut myself with a set of scissors once, and I slashed my left hand with a razor when I was 17. It's more common than we think, and for someone to turn out this way, or in the extreme examples of Thompson and Venables, there is a fuse.
There are signs.
Missing those signs, or failing to read them can lead to disaster, even for just one person.
With my own abuser, I was told by other staff at school that she was often rehabilitated into normal behavior until she returned home from the holidays, only to be just as badly behaved and disruptive. Seven years after I left school, a friend of mine told me that she kissed him on the mouth for no reason when she was ten years old, and that she'd targeted other boys than just me. She also told me "at least my dad's fit and not an old faggot like yours" which even as a 13 year old I found very odd. Of course, children aren't trained in looking for the alarm bells, but adults should be.
She was an abuser, showing signs of being not right in the head, and a danger to the well being of others, and the staff at school failed to see that. What I went through is, let's be clear, not even close to what James Bulger was subjected to, rather I highlight the pattern of warning signs going unnoticed or being ignored, resulting in suffering for another human being.
People who abuse are not quite themselves, that's why they seem so drastically different to those who know nothing about their abusive behavior. Mental illness also affects victims of abuse with anxiety about certain stimuli, environments or people.
Mental illness can be crippling. It can affect your ability to live a normal life, and it can really make you someone you're not yourself. I don't say this because mentally ill people are prone to murder, absolutely not. What I am saying is that if we don't take this warning, we miss the potential chance to save hundred upon thousands of people from a lifetime of suffering. It could be as simple as someone with mental illness committing suicide.
Abusers are all too common to be just psychopaths or evil (such people are mercifully rare), or even pompous and power-hungry dirtbags like Harvey Weinstein, but they are normal people with a destructive side unleashed by triggers or forces at work. Thompson and Venables were normal children. My abuser was a normal person. In both cases, their violence was unleashed by negative influences in their lives and people got hurt because those who were meant to care for these damaged individuals and see the warnings, failed to do so. Abuse will not likely turn most victims into abusers themselves, but the pain they'll suffer as a result will quite possibly hinder them from living a normal, happy and balanced life.
Let's not cheapen it with stupid theories about "toxic masculinity" and "male entitlement", let's actually look for the warning signs of damaged and risky people and act before it's too late.
And may James Bulger rest in peace.
Sincerely,
The Invisible Man
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