Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

C4 now - the James Bulger case **Trigger Warning - Contains Info about the case** (Title edited by MNHQ)

999 replies

Hairgician · 05/02/2018 21:36

Sat watching this now.

I do not accept the view that those 2 boys were treated unfairly. They murdered that poor little boy and they knew what they were doing and that it was wrong.

They should be rotting in jail. Aibu to say justice not served??

OP posts:
Rebeccaslicker · 07/02/2018 17:44

Technically they didn't claim compensation, just costs and expenses - but then technically the Court found in favour of the British government on some of the main issues. So they may not have been awarded it in any event!

TheBrilliantMistake · 07/02/2018 17:45

I think the abused childhoods was a red herring.
I'm old enough to remember the case and at the time there was a lot of coverage about these boys having access to violent 18+ videos and video games.
This viewing desensitised them to violence and they lacked empathy.

Is that not one of the prime examples of abuse?
This is precisely how some children's perception of reality become warped and precise why it's seen as abuse by adults who grant them access or fail to supervise them and prevent access.

NotASingleFuckToGive · 07/02/2018 17:45

Costs and expenses do not relate to compensation.

They were awarded compensation because their case was deemed by the ECHR to have been handled unfairly.

You really want to split hairs on semantics because you were proven wrong?

Elendon · 07/02/2018 17:46

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

JemimaHolm · 07/02/2018 17:46

It's only a matter of time before he harms another child if he hasn't already.

I think this is, unfortunately, true. And I don't know how we (as society) can deal with it other than by locking him away forever. I didn't agree that should happen at the time they murdered James as I believed (and still do believe) that people, and especially children, deserve a second chance. However, Venebles has had a second chance, and a third. At some stage it must be possible for professionals (such as psychiatrists) to say with a reasonable degree of certainty that someone may never be safe to be released, in which case they need to be held indefinitely.

babyccinoo · 07/02/2018 17:49

BigBaboomBun

And no, the comment about rehabilitation- rehabilitation is for drug addicts, hackers, thieves, etc... not for child killers! Fuck that off right away

But to intents and purposes, Thompson is rehabilitated. And you do know most killers are released from jail eventually right?

crunchtime · 07/02/2018 17:49

You do realise that the kind of people who end up doing things like they did are the kind of people who started life like Baby P?

Children are not born 'evil'. Children are created and shaped by their life experiences.
I find it really hard that so many people seem unable to have understanding of the kind of damage that had been done to those two boys in their 10 short years . For them to be able to carry out such a crime means their experiences must have been horrendous.
Yes what they did was awful and sickening and wrong but they should never have been tried in the way they were. They were not adults but children in need of help.

ChaosNeverRains · 07/02/2018 17:49

Tbh if ANYONE had tortured and murdered my helpless child I would be doing time in prison except parents do not as a rule go out and murder the killers of their children or the people who do their loved ones harm. And herein lies another issue.

People presume to think on behalf of the victim. Place them on a pedestal of expectation along the lines of “he/she/they should be feeling x/y/ because that’s how I would feel.” When in actual fact nobody can possibly know how they would actually react in the same situation because they haven’t been there. It’s very easy to have opinions on what you would do when you’re not actually in a position to have to do it.

@TheBrilliantMistake I suggested similar up-thread and was accused of comparing teenagers having sex to murder and called all sorts.

TheBrilliantMistake · 07/02/2018 17:50

TBH if ANYONE had tortured and murdered my helpless child I would be doing time in prison

So, what you are actually saying here is that you would be capable of being a child killer given a specific set of circumstances.
You just didn't like the circumstances of two 10 year olds, but yours would be OK, despite being an adult?

Have a good think.

Elendon · 07/02/2018 17:50

What's the point of having a reasoned discussion around a programme that was shown on Channel 4 a few nights ago when you have posters like Rebeccaslikcer -geddit?- saying that anything other than their extreme view is liberal left wing flimsy nonsense.

Well?

Licked any arses lately Rebecca?

ZanyMobster · 07/02/2018 17:53

Looking- I do believe they should have had longer sentences definitely. Rehabilitation is vital as otherwise they would be locked up at 10 years and that's it. They'd have to be released at some point so for public safety some sort of rehabilitation is required surely. The sentence was changed to 15 years but then that was reduced to 8. 15 years still not enough IMO.

If it's correct that Venables has only got 3 years that's disgraceful. At least 3 offences, one a particularly horrific one and he's just let out after a couple of years. I don't get it!

Rebeccaslicker · 07/02/2018 17:53

Wow Elendon, you really don't like hearing how you come across, do you?

Don't lash out at me with your silly swearing. It really doesn't help that mother superior image you've tried so hard to cultivate. Although well done for getting the pun on the username. It was so subtle, after all 😂😂😂

I suggest that you try rereading your own posts to see why you come across that way. You might learn something!

babyccinoo · 07/02/2018 17:55

Meh, posters like elendon are so desperate to prove how understanding and liberal (and clever) they are. Sometimes that's great. Other times it comes across as if their sympathy is in all the wrong places!

Or maybe they're just trying to present the facts and mitigating factors? Maybe they live in the real world and know that you can't send kids to jail for the rest of their lives?

You're not interested in a debate, you just want to provoke people, Rebecca.

Rebeccaslicker · 07/02/2018 17:55

Oh, and show me where I have given an "extreme view" about this topic, please.

Otherwise you are free to apologise for making such an unfair comment...

Rebeccaslicker · 07/02/2018 17:56

Same applies to you, baby. Off you pop - find where I've said they should be jailed for life or some of the other harsher suggestions made on here, pls, k, thx!

babyccinoo · 07/02/2018 17:57

Rebecca, you're embarrassing yourself. Seriously. And coming across really nasty.

Rebeccaslicker · 07/02/2018 17:59

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

babyccinoo · 07/02/2018 18:00

Same applies to you, baby. Off you pop - find where I've said they should be jailed for life or some of the other harsher suggestions made on here, pls, k, thx!

Off I pop, where? I'm not leaving the thread because of you. Confused

You go and find another thread to be outraged on.

I'm not trawling the thread for your comments, they were stupid enough the first time.

Woollypinksocks · 07/02/2018 18:01

Crunchtime what a load of bollox. There's no such thing as 'born evil', but there is such a thing as being born with severe mental health conditions such as psychopathy, often made worse by the environment.

However there was nothing to suggest that Joanne Dennehy had a bad start, yet she killed those men. Not all humans kill because they've had a bad life, and not all people who've had a bad life go on to kill.

Some do it because there's something in them lacking.

Plenty of killers are locked up for life. The circumstances around James Bulgars murder was particularly bad. It's not like they just shoved him off a climbing frame or something.

We've no idea what kind of life Robert Thompson is living. Just because we've heard nothing about him doesn't mean he's a fine upstanding citizen.

I don't automatically think that they should have been jailed for life but my only sympathies lie with James and his family.

Rebeccaslicker · 07/02/2018 18:01

So you can't find an extreme view that I have expressed here?

Apology accepted :)

ChaosNeverRains · 07/02/2018 18:01

@crunchtime interestingly it’s been suggested on other (unrelated) threads that baby P could easily have gone on to commit the kinds of horrific crimes which Venables and Thompson did due to the abuse he suffered as a baby.

Also, you have only to go on to the adoption threads to look at the incredibly difficult time parents of adopted children have when adopting children from circumstances of severe abuse and neglect, or look at the stats on adoption breakdown and the destruction of families due to behaviour problems brought on by severe abuse and neglect prior to that adoption.

But people often feel that they are not permitted to talk about the breakdown of adoption, the lack of help, the inability to bond with children who have never been able to bond with someone in the past, the severe emotional and violent behaviours often exhibited by their adopted children because adoption is seen by those who have never done it as this great gift, this wonderful altruistic act and the fulfilment of a desire to become a parent. To the extent that it is often suggested flippantly when people talk about not being able to have a baby or wanting to wait until they’re older “oh, you can always adopt.” With no consideration for the reality of what that actually means.

babyccinoo · 07/02/2018 18:03

You were being deliberately provocative, weren't you, Rebecca? You got the response you provoked.

You're an odd pair, that's for sure smile

Well, given I have never met or spoken to Elendon, I'm not sure how we're a pair. Time for you to go and lie down in a dark room, pet.

Elendon · 07/02/2018 18:03

I
feel
the
need
to
ask
the
question.

Did you watch the programme Rebeccaarselicker?

LagunaBubbles · 07/02/2018 18:05

Elendon you accused another poster of spreading lies and its been pointed out to you that they werent lying. Perhaps you could apologise instead of ranting now.

Rebeccaslicker · 07/02/2018 18:05

Actually no, babyccino. It's simply how Elendon came across to me when she attacked a PP for something that she could have corrected quite harmlessly by a bit of googling. But she's not worth responding to if she thinks swearing and personal comments about usernames are the way forward. It will only derail the thread.