Do you think Robert Thompson is truly rehabilitated?

[Cheffymcchef]

As we all know, James Bulger was a two-year-old boy from the UK whose tragic abduction and murder in 1993 shocked the world. Taken from a shopping center by two ten-year-old boys, John Venables and Robert Thompson, his death became one of the most harrowing and widely known cases in modern British history. To this day, nearly everyone who hears his name knows the heartbreaking story and the profound impact it had on public consciousness and the justice system.
both boys were released after serving 8 years, when they turned eighteen. John Venables returned to prison twice for possessing CSAM. He is currently still in prison.
I personally think Venables is sick and can’t be “cured” of his attraction to kids. He will always reoffend imo, even if his devices etc are taken away. He needs to stay in prison. He’s also allegedly revealed his identity and needed several new identities costing the taxpayer even more. I know you get all this “stop it now” therapy- I just don’t think pedophiles can be cured. It’s like trying to do conversion therapy on a straight person.
I don’t know how I feel about Thompson- he committed a heinous murder, but did his time in custody. He’s never reoffended and now allegedly lives with a partner who knows who he is. Can’t remember if he has children. From studying this case, it always seems like he was deemed the ring leader, yet he is the one who has cleaned himself up and stayed out of trouble.
both boys allegedly came from abusive households.
I know poor James' mum will never get over his death. I cant imagine the mixed feelings she must have, she likely thinks it was wrong for either boy to be released so young.
I can’t say I’d be too thrilled about Thompson moving into my area if that’s the case, but truthfully I think if he’s done his time he needs to be left alone now to live his life . But that’s probably a wildly unpopular opinion- because James will never get to live his life.
what do you think?

posted in crime but moved here for traffic

I don’t wish to derail your thread, but if you read his mother’s book she says he was never called Jamie, always James and it upset her so much to read/hear her son being called ‘Jamie’

@TomatoSandwiches I read a wife and they had children but who knows the truth I suppose.

@Cheffymcchef I would say the same for all child killers.
If we are talking about a five year old with a gun- playing then maybe not.

But planning, torturing and engaging in that activity for hours, they enjoyed it, then they destroyed the evidence. I don’t think you can rehabilitate a monster.
Reminds me of Lord of the flies.

Presumably locals/ school friends would maybe recognise them by the CCTV or the fact they regularly skived off and may have outed them. Thus a new identity would’ve been done anyway.

They were ten*.
They did an unimaginably awful thing, but I think if he’s served his time and managed to commit any other crimes since then the chances are he’s a normal, functional, person.
Would you think thesame if it was your child they brutalised and murdered?🤔

Ah apologies for my mistake.

Me too. I would hope he does think about what he did: regret his actions. I can’t imagine things will be easy for him, he will likely be having therapy / antidepressants for life and probably looking over his shoulder forever. As long as he does not reoffend though I think he deserves a second chance at life.

and regret his actions*

Has he sexually assaulted a child since Jamie Bulger? Has he murdered someone? I'm not saying he hasn't done anything wrong, I'm looking at whether he continued a life of extreme violence.

Yes, of course. But there's clearly a vast difference between that and their names and images being beamed to every telly in the country, on the front of every paper. Especially in the pre internet age.

I always thought the parents of John
Venables and Robert Thompson should have had charges brought against them. I don’t believe 10 year olds are just evil, they were made that way. I’m not sure what I think about Robert Thompson now, I don’t think James Bulger or his family received justice, I can’t imagine anything worse than what his parents have had to go through.

On the subject of his Mum’s book - it’s quite good. Gives an insight into James as a person rather than just the murder victim we all know.

Easy to read (language wise, the content isn’t!) and has some nice stories which show just how in love with that boy his mother was. He was her second child to pass away too, which is just unfathomable. Her first baby was full term still born.

It goes into detail about on his funeral day the press were trying to pay the homeowners across from the chapel for access to their house so they could get photos of the family. They wanted the money shot of Denise.

I also didn’t know she was initially accused of being in the shopping centre shoplifting when James went missing.

I haven’t finished the book yet but I get the distinct impression that she’s still utterly incandescent with rage over what happened and the justice system in general.

It goes into detail about on his funeral day the press were trying to pay the homeowners across from the chapel for access to their house so they could get photos of the family. They wanted the money shot of Denise.

How disgusting.

The family have repeatedly requested he is referred to as James not Jamie. The press referred to him as Jamie, it's not a name that was used by his family.

As I recall Mary Bell led a blameless life after her release from a sentence for murdering a younger child. Crap stuff happens and Thompson was himself a child, not an adult. Brady and Hindley - adults who knew what they were doing. Throw away the key. Child killers, I’m much less sure but think rehabilitation must be possible.

They probably still didn’t want to take the risk of it making the papers, or the boys / their families getting beaten up by people before they’d had a chance to jail them/ put them in an STC.

They were but the familial structures were different. Venables came from a broken home, his mother even intimidated the police. Both his siblings had learning difficulties. Not sure if he was visited while in prison by family but Thomsons mother visited every three days and there were reports of his siblings (he was one of seven) visiting as well. We will never know who did what to James Bulger, but the two boys were very different despite having similar upbringing. I'm still convinced to this day that Thompson is a sociopath and was the main instegator of the crime or encouraged Venables to do it. Having said that, not many sociopaths kill people so his rehabilitation, such as it is, is the best that can be hoped for.

Looking at those images creates a market. that child he is perving over is being sexually abused for him and people like him, he doesn’t need to physically be there, it’s just as bad and makes you a pedophile, I thought everybody knew that.

I expect I would, yes.

It was an absolutly horrifying act of unimaginable inhumanity, but they were children, they weren’t even teenagers, they were still at primary school! They both had hideous parenting and were failed from
the moment they were born by just about everyone who was supposed to care for them.

I’m in no way suggesting they should be forgiven but thinking rationally I don’t think condemning someone in perpetuity for something they did when they were ten is right. We don’t know if RT has a normal life now, we don’t know how much he may hate himself for what he did.

The other one is clearly a wrongun and has continued into adulthood as a violent child abuser.

I studied journalism at university in northern England, and one of our guest lecturers told this story. They also personally showed up with a stuffed bunny toy embroidered with James’ name to bring to the funeral to persuade the gatekeepers he was friends/family.

He was so proud of it. I ended up never being a journalist.

Weren't the names released after they'd been arrested, hence the mugshots? It was just the CCTV images that were publicised before that, which in themselves would give no information to 99.9999% of the population.

There obviously would've been some people who knew and therefore recognised them from the footage but again, it's a vast difference between that and telling the world.

Christ that’s awful. Do the police not care about stuff like this? Surely that’s harrassment / impersonation

Yes, I'm sorry but creating demand for images of child sexual abuse is violence.

Do you have children op?

If you do I want you to genuinely consider this:- your child takes the place of James Bulger. Do you still feel the killers deserve a second chance?

I suppose but perhaps it still posed as a risk. There were probably other reasons for it too.

I don’t have children, so I feel like however I would answer this it wouldn’t seem sincere.