Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

The Bulger killers: was justice done?

999 replies

WannaBeWonderWoman · 08/02/2018 00:07

Following on from previous thread which was filled.

What would have been the correct way to deal with these little boys who subjected a tiny two year old to protracted agony and unimaginable suffering then?

Interested to know what all the bleeding hearts on here believe should have happened? Whether they attended an adult court and were convicted of murder which they confessed to anyway, was this crueller to them than what they put that child through? They were well treated and even when they were serving their 'sentence' they were protected and given all they wanted (more than they would have got if they'd been in their own homes probably) and had all the help and therapy it was possible to give them. Did they suffer? You could actually argue that they benefitted from killing. They have to live with what they've done, yes, but if they did I find it hard to comprehend that Thompson especially (who came across as the leader in the interviews) can.

The Norwegian case which is often compared to this is nowhere similar IMO. The perpetrators were a similar age to their victim. They were 6 which is almost half the age V&T were and they wouldn't have been tried here anyway. Most importantly that crime was not premeditated or drawn out for hours like the many horrors inflicted on James.

He was the only victim here.

OP posts:
Sleepingbunnies · 08/02/2018 15:49

I think we are supposed to try and understand them greyhorses Hmm

Cherrycokewinning · 08/02/2018 15:49

This reply has been deleted

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

ShatnersWig · 08/02/2018 15:50

Bish I was responding to a specific question posed by Sleeping about whether it is right a convicted child killer should be able to marry and have children of their own simply by pointing out that that is precisely what has happened in other cases, using one as an example.

Sleepingbunnies · 08/02/2018 15:50

Those aren’t my abortion views eledon

Sleepingbunnies · 08/02/2018 15:51

Yeah I’m normal(ish) Smile

Aridane · 08/02/2018 15:51

Reading this thread- and the previous one- is increasingly making me feel that posters’ model of a criminal justice system is not that of the US but Saudi Arabia...

Cherrycokewinning · 08/02/2018 15:52

Sorry I meant to direct that at glass not bish

Rebeccaslicker · 08/02/2018 15:53

Cherry - those graphic details you've just given are quite similar to what T and V actually did, you know...

I don't agree with the death penalty, and I certainly don't agree with mob vigilante justice. i like to think we've moved on since the bible taught us to take an eye for an eye.

BarbarianMum · 08/02/2018 15:53

....or Daesh

Cuppaoftea · 08/02/2018 15:54

His crimes since being released for murder are relatively minor. Why does that indicate a danger to the public that requires him to be imprisoned for the rest of his life?

I wouldn’t call a convicted child killer being caught in possession of child abuse of toddlers a similar age to James as well as literuture detailing how to train young children to endure abuse minor.

Venables is clearly highly manipulative and waiting for his chance to harm another child. The only way to stop him putting another family through the nightmare the Bulgers have had to face is to lock him up for the rest of his life.

melj1213 · 08/02/2018 15:54

Pretty sure the parents would have been willing............

And this is why the Bulger's petition to the European Court of Human Rights in 1999, that a victim of a crime has the right to be involved in determining the sentence of the perpetrator, was rejected a few months after the ECH had ruled that the boys had not received a fair trial and, the then Home Secretary, Michael Howard's intervention had led to a "highly charged atmosphere", which resulted in an unfair judgement being handed down.

The criminal justice system cannot be based on certain offenders being treated more harshly than others because of the victims' want for "human justice" (which becomes the mob mentality of adults wanting to torture and kill two 10 year olds, which is never acceptable regardless of what they have done). You cannot decide that these 10 year old boys should be subjected to different rules because of the notoriety of their case. Do you have the same ire for Anwar Rosser for example? Or Andrew Randall? Do you even know who they are without looking them up or what they did?

If these boys had been older they would have, awful and flippant as it sounds, been treated like any other child killer, receiving a sentence and serving it. The only reason people know about them is because their age made the case noteworthy and the media and political influences made them notorious.

Reddlion · 08/02/2018 15:54

I feel sorry for the people who meet them because they are living a lie of who they are i suppose that is punishment

Cherrycokewinning · 08/02/2018 15:54

Well there are probably only so many ways to murder people, but apologies. At least I’m not the one who wants to do it, eh?

ShatnersWig · 08/02/2018 15:56

Excellent posts throughout mel

BishBoshBashBop · 08/02/2018 15:57

@Cherrycokewinning Pkease stop dragging me and my name into your posts.

I have said I don't believe in the death penalty 3 times now which you keep ignoring. If you are going to call posters out at least get it right.

Cherrycokewinning · 08/02/2018 15:58

It was only once bish, calm down

Rebeccaslicker · 08/02/2018 15:58

She did say later on that it was meant for glass, bish, in case you missed it.

ChaosNeverRains · 08/02/2018 15:59

Cherry - those graphic details you've just given are quite similar to what T and V actually did, you know... and yet sleeping and glass are advocating those things be done to ten year olds. Not only advocating it but offering to do it. So that puts them in the same league as those boys except they’re adults.

And you do know that incitement to violence is an actual crime?

Aridane · 08/02/2018 16:00

Barbarian - I was going to add the Daesh analogy but didn’t have the nerve Blush

Sleepingbunnies · 08/02/2018 16:00

I’m not inciting anyone chaos

GlassButterfly · 08/02/2018 16:02

I never "offered" to do it, get your facts right, I advocate the death penalty (but thats another debate) I said If someone did that to my child, I would be seeking revenge, correct human response

HTH546 · 08/02/2018 16:04

Personally I thought the sentences were correct at the time but clearly Venables hasn’t learnt his lesson and I think sentencing for him now need to be more severe.

pollythedolly · 08/02/2018 16:05

I've read a lot on this lately. I don't think either have been rehabilitated.

Venables, obviously why and he needs locking up for good. What he did, then got released, then more abhorrent child sexual abuse stuff. And kept outing himself, who he was. No. Nothing can be done for him and death penalty is too easy. So lock up for life.

As for Thompson, I read an interesting article from one of his social workers, he completely detached himself from the crime, was unemotional and knew how to play his game to get the best for himself. Behaved very well in incarceration and has since kept himself out of view. The detachment, I think this worries me more.

Elendon · 08/02/2018 16:17

I read an interesting article from one of his social workers

No you didn't. pollythedolly Please don't lie on this thread.

loobyloo1234 · 08/02/2018 16:22

She's not lying Elendon - how rude Confused

The article is here if you needed the proof

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1256109/Robert-Thompson-Social-worker-looked-James-Bulger-killer-speaks.html

Swipe left for the next trending thread