The James Bulger Story. UK's most harrowing murder case

Merseyside is most famous for the fiery football derby that takes place between Liverpool FC and Everton FC. But the February of 1993 had something else in store for the people of Merseyside and the whole United Kingdom. An event so gruesome and baffling took place that it shook not just the whole of the UK but the entire world as well. A three-year-old boy was killed by two ten-year-old boys. The manner in which they tortured and killed him took everyone’s breath away. What drove them to commit such a heinous crime? How can a ten-year-old have such a destructive mind? The read-ahead is not for the faint of hearts.

The three-year-old James Bulger

On the afternoon of February 12th, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson decided to skip the school and go to the mall. Once at the mall, they resumed their daily business of pillaging the candy shops and the toy shops and creating chaos for the shopping mall guards. But after a while, sinister thoughts began to envelop their mind. They planned to steal someone’s child. The first child they came across would have been the victim, but the child’s mother found him before he could have been pestered away by the boys. Unfortunately, James Bulger was the next child they came across. James was visiting the mall with his mother. But his mother was momentarily distracted, which caused the two boys to enforce their plan into action. They lured Bulger away from his mother and off onto the path of no return. The surveillance camera caught the boys holding Bulger’s hand and leaving the mall. After Denise Bulger realized that her son was nowhere to be found, she panicked. And after searching for him herself, she lodged a police complaint.

The fact that there were so many eye-witnesses is baffling, and that no one did anything to stop the torture is truly sad. People saw the three boys walking around the streets of Liverpool. A lady also saw them shoving Bulger to the ground which resulted in injuries to his head. Another person saw the injured boy and didn’t do anything. They punched him, shook him. One woman even approached them and asked about the injuries suffered to the little boy, to which they said they he had rolled down the hill and they had saved him. Believing their story to be true, she told the boys to take him to the police station. Later on, as she saw the news of James Bulger on the television, she called the police to express her regret at letting the boys get away. There were several such encounters where the passersby had seen the three boys together. In the end, they reached the railway. This was where the murder of James Bulger took place. The time was adjudged as somewhere between 5:45 and 6:45.

Grab from the CCTV footage at the shopping mall. In the photo, it is seen that Job Venables is holding James Bulger's hand, while Robert Thompson is walking right in front of Bulger. (Image Source - Wikimedia)

A blue paint can was stolen from the shopping mall and the blue paint was splashed in the little boy’s eye. They kicked him, stamped him, hit him with bricks and stone and even forced batteries inside his mouth. After all this, the boys found a 10-kg iron bar and hit Bulger on his head. The blow was so severe that Bulger suffered from ten fractures on his skull. After the post-mortem, it was found out that the little boy had suffered from as many as 42 injuries to his head, face and body. By that time, James Bulger was already dead. Afraid of what they had done, they laid the body on the railway tracks to make it look like an accident. Following this, the boys fled the scene.


Entrance to the site where they found James Bulger's body. A policeman is seen guarding the entrance to the railway tracks. (Image Source - PA Images via Getty Images)

The police started with their investigations. Without much proof, they suspected that the parents were the perpetrators. But, when they got their hands on the CCTV footage they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Bulger was being led away from his mother by two older children. The search began. Police had swarmed the entire Merseyside. And, after two days, they discovered the body of James Bulger on the railway track along side the instruments used to kill him. This caused a city-wide manhunt to catch the killers. They began to check the schools, but they were not successful in finding any leads. Ultimately when they were on their wit's end, the police received an anonymous phone call which linked Jon Venables and Robert Thompson as the killers. The police visited their home and discovered blue paint on Venables’ jacket and blood on Thompson’s shoes. The boys were arrested then and there itself.

Parents of James Bulger, Ralph and Denise, at the police press conference in Liverpool, a day after their son disappeared. (Image Source - Malcolm Croft – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

They were made to go through a very tasking interrogation session that aimed at cracking the case open. During the session, both the boys were blaming each other for what happened. The sessions lasted several days and ended with Venables being the first one to crack and confess about them being the killers. Thompson was not giving the police an easy time by denying everything that took place. Both of them were charged with murdering James Bulger. Their identities were not disclosed to the public, on account of them being minors. But the rage of people was evident, as they screamed for blood. This conviction made them the youngest to be convicted of this crime in Britain in the 250 years. They were sentenced to serve at Her Majesty’s pleasure, serving an eight-year sentence until they were 18. In June 2001, both the boys were released as it was determined that they were no longer a threat to society and didn’t show any signs of violent behavior. You can see an audio clipping of the police interrogation of the boys below.

Upon their release, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were given new identities and legal anonymity due to the public fury regarding this case. While Thompson has readjusted back to leading a normal life, Venables has found himself embroiled with the law on two occasions. In 2010, he was imprisoned for possession of several images depicting sexual abuse on male toddlers and became eligible for parole in 2013. But in 2017 again he was arrested for possessing child abuse photos and a paedophile manual. This time, he was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.

James Bulger's father, Ralph Bulger had appealed to the court for reconsidering lifting the anonymity of his son's killers, but the court declined this appeal. Despite this case dating back to almost three decades, the psychologists and the police have not come up to any concrete decisions regarding the motive of the murder and the emergence of such a motive inside the minds of two ten-year-olds. What do you think about it?