Jon Venables (James Bulger killer)

[Reverend Gooner]

I also think that if he is guilty of these alleged latest offenses that he should of course go back to jail for a long time.

Where a problem arises for me is that I strongly oppose the death penalty, and as a result I cant be a hypocrite and support vigilante murder or anything that could facilitate it. Therefore I cant agree with annonymity being lifted in this case because it would then be a question of when, not if, an attempt would be made to kill him.

True. Plus what is the point of hidden identities if they can be broken, I wouldn't want to start making that acceptable.

I wouldn't bat an eyelid if he got murdered but I don't want the the powers that be to start listening to the British mob mentality either.

He will stay in prison now for absolutely ages, I am sure of it. Letting him out early again could be an election loser.

[Fabrestuta]

That may be true, but I think enough time has passed now that it wouldn't happen though (maybe I am being naive). The only reason most people even talk about jamie Bulger is because the media bring it up. I remember the actual case as it was happening, but many many people don't.

[UFGN]

That may be true, but I think enough time has passed now that it wouldn't happen though (maybe I am being naive). The only reason most people even talk about jamie Bulger is because the media bring it up. I remember the actual case as it was happening, but many many people don't.

If I could have a go at him I would probably do him some serious harm despite my views, I wouldnt be able to stop myself. But I shouldnt be allowed to.

[UFGN]

I wouldn't bat an eyelid if he got murdered but I don't want the the powers that be to start listening to the British mob mentality either.

Exactly.

[Gunflash]

I'm not interested in what Venables did this time but if I was, it doesn't mean that I have a right to know. However, I think there's a lot of snobbery directed at Denise Fergus (James Bulger's mother) because she happens to come from a working-class background and isn't buying into the tolerance/understanding package. If she was posh and middle-class, the Guardianistas would be supporting her rather than accusing her of attempting to incite ochlocratic behaviour through the Sun newspaper.

However, for the government to complain about the attitude of the press is pure hypocrisy. The politicians were part of the mob who held up Venables and Thompson as symbols of a crumbling society. The Labour party accuse Cameron of exaggerating about "Broken Britain" but they weren't saying that in 1993 when their Home Affairs spokesman, a well-spoken man by the name of Anthony Blair, seized on the Bulger case as an example of moral decline, as part of his pitch towards the right-wing press. Then when Labour came to power in 1997, they enshrined the criminalisation of children in legislation, pushed through parliament by Jack Straw, who on Monday was hypocritically talking about the need to calm down tensions.

[UFGN]

I'm not interested in what Venables did this time but if I was, it doesn't mean that I have a right to know. However, I think there's a lot of snobbery directed at Denise Fergus (James Bulger's mother) because she happens to come from a working-class background and isn't buying into the tolerance/understanding package. If she was posh and middle-class, the Guardianistas would be supporting her rather than accusing her of attempting to incite ochlocratic behaviour through the Sun newspaper.

However, for the government to complain about the attitude of the press is pure hypocrisy. The politicians were part of the mob who held up Venables and Thompson as symbols of a crumbling society. The Labour party accuse Cameron of exaggerating about "Broken Britain" but they weren't saying that in 1993 when their Home Affairs spokesman, a well-spoken man by the name of Anthony Blair, seized on the Bulger case as an example of moral decline, as part of his pitch towards the right-wing press. Then when Labour came to power in 1997, they enshrined the criminalisation of children in legislation, pushed through parliament by Jack Straw, who on Monday was hypocritically talking about the need to calm down tensions.

Some fair points there.

[gooner90]

he should be locked up for life and none of this 'special' treatment nonsense

[Galls]

While I believe in freedom of speech in most cases, I do believe also that the press needs to keep their nose out of this one. He's in jail, we don't need to know why, and we certainly don't need the media making a meal of things and putting things in our heads, inciting people to act in a way they perversely think is right.

Let him rot in jail for all I care. 10 yrs old or not, he knew what he was doing was wrong. Even my dog knows when she's done something wrong for god sake. He was punished, that's where it should end.

I agreed at the time that both of them should have new idetities because there is inevitably going to be some kind of circus around the time when they were released, and they would never be allowed to rehabilitate becasue people would always be on their back expecting the worse from them. And worse people would be waiting to gain their revenge if you see what I mean.

Then what kind of people does it make us to want someone dead? It makes us as bad as him and his mate who did this terrible thing in the first place.

[Dan The Fan]

Pretty simple really, what they should do is get two huge hulking men to kick them through the streets of Liverpool, all the way to the railway lines, throw bricks on their heads and wait for a train to run over them. Oh wait, isn't that what they did to their victim? Sounds like justice to me... an eye for an eye!

To be honest, I don't even think their is a "mob mentality" when it comes to Venables & Thompson. It is human nature to want to destroy something that poses a threat to you or your loved ones. These two will forever pose a threat to the public, so why give them the chance to?

The murder description:

Show the spoiler
At the trial it was established that at this location, one of the boys threw blue Humbrol modelling paint into Bulger's left eye.[9] They kicked him and hit him with bricks, stones and a 22-pound (10.0 kg) iron bar, described in court as a railway fishplate.[19][20][21] They placed batteries in his mouth.[22] Bulger suffered ten skull fractures as a result of the iron bar striking his head. Alan Williams, the case's pathologist, speculated that Bulger suffered so many injuries that none could be isolated as the fatal blow.[23] Police suspected that there was a sexual element to the crime, since Bulger's shoes, stockings, trousers and underpants had been removed. The pathologist's report read out in court stated that Bulger's foreskin had been manipulated.[24][19] When questioned about this aspect of the attack by detectives and the child psychiatrist Eileen Vizard, Thompson and Venables were reluctant to give details.[25][15]
Before they left him, the boys laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, in the hope that a train would hit him and make his death appear to be an accident. After Bulger's killers left the scene, his body was cut in half by a train.[26] Bulger's severed body was discovered two days later, on 14 February.[5] A forensic pathologist testified that he had died before he was struck by the train."

Mod: I spoilered that as not everyone may want to read it due to it's graphic description