To think that Denise Fergus should have stayed at home?

[2blessed2bstressed]

I don't understand why she (mum of Jamie Bulger) had to go and sit in court when John Venables was being sentenced for his more recent crime. I will never forget the horror of hearing what happened to her little boy, and I know that she will never get over it - but how can it possibly help her to keep appearing on tv and making statements about what happens now? She seems to feel she has a right to be told all about everything, and while I can sympathise with her opinion to a certain extent I don't know that she does really. I saw her being interviewed when he was arrested earlier in the year and she said she'd had to keep her children off school because of the publicity - but she seems to be generating a lot of it herself.
Please don't think me hard hearted, it's just that I don't get it.

Also 2 years is a light sentence for the offence

She isn't being hysterical

leave her alone, seriously
there is little symnpathy or compassion in your OP, rather cruel IMO

thats terrible....i'd only heard a little.

good job he was caught....however,once he's released? what then!

because i have seen first hand what a 'low level' paedophile can do.....Colin Hatch couldn't help himself.

If that happened to my child SGB, it would be the defining thing for the rest of my life, whether other people deemed it healthy or not.

To say otherwise is to imply she should be over it, some people can reconcile themselves to living with tragedy, others not, but it's not for anyone to say how someone should react to a violent death or for how long.

If the killer of my child were free, not sure I would rest

But its none of anyone's business - she literally can do what she wants

And it is about us Alaska, because we can empathise as mothers, even if it only a fraction of the pain she feels.

We can feel for her as a mother and as someone who loved her son as much as we love our children.

Of course you don't 'get it'. Why would you? You've never experienced anything like what's she been through.

Seriously - it's no skin off anyone's nose for her to continue in this vein, is it?

For sure, she might be torturing herself by doing it, or it might be helping.

Pretty f*ing patronising for any of us to assume we know best.

I hope to god that you'll never understand. To lose a child in those circumstances should, at the very least, give her a free pass from being criticised by people who feel that she's not handling her grief and her life the way they feel she should.

yes but if you are looking it from a sentencing point of view - say you were very inarticulate and had a chancge to make some victim statement, would it be fair if your inarticulacy went against you.
is a very tricky area

ILove

He has been in jail since he was arrested because he is still serving his life sentence (although he had been out on licence).

Even when he has served the 2 year sentence he will not be released again until he can convince a parole board that he poses no further risk.

She's not necessarily always right - she just has A right to handle this in the best way she sees fit...

Who is anyone else to determine how she should handle things?

Babybarrister, are you saying she should be treated differently to everyone else in our society, and is not entitled voice her opinion in the public arena?

I am amazed at some people thinking they know better than her about how she should feel about the killers of her child

If I recall correctly, babyb, it took a mother who had lost a child to come on your thread and explain why this sort of attitude towards her is totally unreasonable

babybarrister can you explain more articulately than me the issues with a victim driven legal system?

And of course she is right, because that's how she feels, which is not something that can be denied by other people.

"some people feel VERY strongly that she is always right. "

its not that. I just think writing bitchy little posts about her (and I remember your charming little diatribe) is really fucking low

What gets me is, how do we know she at the court today?

The papers said so. She went there for her own reasons, which she is perfectly, legally entitled to do, no one had to even mention she was there. It isn't her fault if there's still interest in her and her son.

I don't understand how certain people can be so cold towards/about someone who's child has been killed in a horrificly violent way.

Has she interfered with the due proccess of the law? No.
She has the right to express her opinions to the media and sit in the court.

Did she have the right to know their new identities? No. Does she have the right to feel that she should know their new identities? Yes.

Is it healthy for her to behave the way she is? Quite possibly not. Is it anyone's business how she behaves, as long as she doesn't break the law? No.

I think it is cruel, irresponsible and damaging for the press to keep wheeling out this poor woman for a comment.

She is trying to remake her life - she remarried and had another child I believe.

I recall the brother of one of the moors victims saying how he felt his Mother had never been allowed to have another moment of joy after the death of her son and he felt the press were complicit in that. She was forced to relive the tragedy in a never ending loop.

I think Mrs Bulger should be spared from that.

Mrs Fergus not Bulger babybarrister.

I wouldn't like to judge her.

I don't judge her at all.
If it were me, I'd behave in exactly the same way, I'm certain.
But I would hope those around me and the public at large would feel enough compassion for me to offer me some protection from myself.

I think I would have behaved with a lot less dignity.