Two days later, after a huge police search, James's battered body was found on a railway line more than two miles away. "[4], The police quickly found low-resolution video images of Bulger's abduction from the New Strand Shopping Centre by two unidentified boys. [9][61] The European Court case led to the new Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, reviewing the minimum sentence. [6][7], Closed-circuit television (CCTV) at the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle on 12 February 1993 showed Thompson and Venables casually observing children, apparently selecting a target. Read about our approach to external linking. [149] Bulger's mother circulated a petition to have the film removed from the nominations. The report was ultimately dismissed; however, his lack of remorse at the time, in stark contrast to Venables, led to considerable scrutiny from the parole panel. WebBackground Crime Sentencing Robert Thompson . [41], Thompson and Venables did not speak during the trial, and the case against them was based to a large extent on the more than 20 hours of tape-recorded police interviews with the boys, which were played back in court. [24][31] When Thompson and Venables were questioned about this aspect of the attack by detectives and a child psychiatrist, Eileen Vizard, the pair were reluctant to give details. [8] The boys were playing truant from their local primary school, which they did regularly. "I don't think we went wrong at all," Venables maintained rather desperately in a newspaper interview she later gave. Sign up to our newsletter to receive email updates on new series, features, and more from your favourite Crime+Investigation shows: Venables' parents regularly visited their son at Red Bank, just as Thompson's mother did, every three days, at Barton Moss. The couple, who also have a 13- year-old son, who has learning difficulties, and a 9-year-old daughter, denied that Jon was bullied by his brother or that he watched violent horror films at home. Vizard also said that Thompson was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after the attack on Bulger. A few days later, Venables and Thompson were arrested and charged - the youngest people to be accused of murder in the 20th Century. In court, Venables was the more emotional of the two defendants, crying openly and leaning against the shoulder of his social worker. Three months later, police cautioned him for possessing cocaine, and a requirement was added to his licence ordering him to address his alcohol and drug problems, the court was told. "You look at him and you say to yourself, 'How could you be involved in anything like this?'" The order, and its enforcement, is therefore intended to protect not only Venables and Thompson, but also those members of the public who have been incorrectly identified as being one of the two men. But he also laid blame with their parents, calling for a public debate about "the home background, upbringing, family circumstances, parental behaviour and relationships" of children who commit "grave crimes". [22] They kicked him, stamped on him, and threw bricks and stones at him. Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with abduction and murder. [126], On 23 November 2017, it was reported that Venables had again been recalled to prison for possession of child sexual abuse imagery. But at the age of 27, Venables finds himself back in the headlines and back behind bars having been jailed for two years after pleading guilty to charges of downloading and distributing indecent images of children.