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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think that Denise Fergus should have stayed at home?

385 replies

2blessed2bstressed · 23/07/2010 13:38

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.

OP posts:
Litchick · 23/07/2010 15:09

Me too, if I'm honest.

AgentZigzag · 23/07/2010 15:10

Me too CrackFox, me too

2shoes · 23/07/2010 15:15

yabu
as some one said earlier, she just wants justice

LisaD1 · 23/07/2010 15:21

Well, if we had sent the sick bastard to the hell he deserves then maybe Denise could get some peace from it all, although I'm sure losing a child in such horrific circumstances would mean you would never get over it, I'm also sure it would be a little more bearable to know the sicko who did those things was no longer drawing breath.

Sadly, the dirty, twisted, waste of space and air is still causing grief and torment to Denise and her family as well as getting off on the grief and torment of many other children so I am not surprised she wants a voice, she wants justice for her baby, she's entitled to be as visible in the press as she chooses to. She had no choice in what happened to her child, maybe that's another factor in her feeling like she wants to have some kind of input/control? Who knows, we can only be thankful we don't have to walk in her shoes.

SolidGoldBrass · 23/07/2010 15:26

OK, firstly 'victim-driven' sentencing policy is not justice, it's vengeance. The whole point of the justice system is that it's impartial and looks at the facts. The mixture of sentimentality and dumbfuck unfocussed rage the tabloids like to whip up around selected cases they deem 'interesting' enough is not about justice at all.

Secondly, it's not a criticism of Denise Fergus to think that the tabloids' constant pursuit of her for quotes and pictures might not be doing her - or her other children - any good by forcing her to keep going back over her son's death again and again.

Litchick · 23/07/2010 15:51

Well quite SGB - if Venebales had hurt my children there is nothing anyone could have done to him that I wouldn't be clamouring for.
But though that would be an entirely understandable reaction it wouldn't be one upon which to base policy.

It sickens me that the press talk about seeking justice for this woman. She cannot get it. Because the only just thing would be for this terrible thing to have never happened.
They simply use her suffering wiht no regard for her well being or the well being of her family.

jesuswhatnext · 23/07/2010 15:52

i dont think she is 'forced' to go over the death again and again, i should imagine she relives it every waking morning, last thing at night and so on and on. ( and will do until the day she dies)

no judgement from me - whatever she does is her business, its her life and she somehow has to find a way to live it with some degree of peace - how she does that is entierly up to her. good luck to the poor woman.

BunnyLebowski · 23/07/2010 15:52

As usual SGB is the voice of reason and sense.

AgentZigzag · 23/07/2010 16:04

After all the years she's had to deal with the media I would say she's pretty media savvy, and uses them to amplify her voice.

Like plenty of other people she's using the media rather than the other way round.

GetOrfMoiLand · 23/07/2010 16:23

Good post SBG.

I cannot judge the poor woman, whose life was irrevocably changed when her son was killed.

What a torment her life must be.

ChunkyChick · 23/07/2010 16:30

The only 'unreasonable' thing about any of this is that those two were ever let out.

babybarrister · 23/07/2010 16:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

RunawayWife · 23/07/2010 16:53

Sadly she is connected to this piece of garbage for life.

I think she has to do what she has to do to get through each day the poor woman

OrmRenewed · 23/07/2010 16:59

Why didn't she get justice? She may not have got the 'justice' she wanted but it was still justice. The family of victims might want to see the perpetrators hanged, drawn and quartered, but the law, thank fuck, won't let let it happen.

LadyBlaBlah · 23/07/2010 17:06

But there has been no victim lead justice so I see no reason to even discuss it with reference to this case.

And she is not endlessly pursued by the tabloids ( I actually despise the media but I cannot see how you can accuse her of always being in the papers?). There has been quite a significant twist in this story with Venables being found guilty of another horrific crime, raising all sorts of questions around rehabilitation etc. for the public at large. But obviously if Denise Fergus wishes to attend the court to understand the person who killed her son some more and make a statement about what the family feel about it ( through a lawyer btw) then she is very very entitled to. The media are not hanging about outside her house afaik, she chose to give a statement (through a lawyer) outside the court.

And good for her for having a voice.

juicy12 · 23/07/2010 17:17

LisaD1 Well, if we had sent the sick bastard to the hell he deserves
I'm also sure it would be a little more bearable to know the sicko who did those things was no longer drawing breath
Sadly, the dirty, twisted, waste of space and air

LisaD1, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were 10 years old at the time of James' death. You're talking as though they were adults.

RunawayWife · 23/07/2010 17:21

I hope he gets some lovely jail treatment although I am sure he will be locked up alone for his safety

I wonder what he has to do before his little mumsnet fan club admit he is a vile, evil, oxygen thief?

2shoes · 23/07/2010 17:24

RunawayWife good post

RunawayWife · 23/07/2010 17:28

He IS an adult now, so what is the hugging circles excuse for him and his child porn then?

DuelingFanjo · 23/07/2010 17:29

lovely jail treatment.

Jesus how barbaric. This isn't how 'justice' is done in the UK now is it? I hate posts like that - they really are so ignorant.

Litchick · 23/07/2010 17:32

There si no excuse for this offense.
He was found guilty and sentenced acoordingly.

Nothing Mrs Bulger could say would have any effect, other than to provide a few column inches.

juicy12 · 23/07/2010 17:40

Oh, for heavens' sake. Of course he's an adult now and I wouldn't imagine for a second that there's a little Mumsnet fanclub, but it is possible to feel the utmost sympathy for the Bulger/Fergus family and utter revulsion for the crime against their little boy without resorting to lynch mob tendancies.

2shoes · 23/07/2010 17:41

maybe it helped her.
to see him go to prison at last.

BAFE · 23/07/2010 17:43

YANBU - Denise Bulger seems to want vengence, not justice.

LadyBlaBlah · 23/07/2010 18:10

I find the title of this thread quite repulsive