James Bulger's mother demands right to find freed killers

[suzywong]

as reported in the \link{http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/news/news1.shtml\news of the world.

Should she have the right?

Discuss

The whole issue of making paedophiles' identities known is a completely different matter. These people committed a terrible crime when they were ten years old, have now served the punishment that was given and have (presumably) satisfied psychiatrists/social workers etc that they are sufficiently rehabilitated to safely rejoin society.

when i was 10 i knew it was wrong to kill or hurt anyone

And so did I. And?

Nikcola - they were not "normal" kids. They were clearly screwed up.

I dont mean that as an insult to them either.

im going now but i still think she should have the right to at least confront them and make them understand the pain they have caused her,

i wonder if they have children themselves and if maybee that has made them realise what they have done x

i had an email sent to me a while ago, i didn't ask for it and i wish i had never read it. it detailed the horrific things that poor james had inflicted on him. i dont think that these men should have ever been released, how ever rehibilitated they are said to be. if, as children they were evil enough to do it - to a baby - how can that evil not have grown???? and how can we protect our kids if we do not know where the dangers are? (although i do understand the 'mob mentality' theory -but i also understand and sympathise with the reasons behind it) denise bulger is a better person than i could ever be.

What is "evil"?

I think it is highly unlikely that the individuals responsible for Jamie Bulger's death will ever reoffend. If we (as a society) are concerned about protecting our children I would think it more appropriate to attempt to prevent such things from happening in the first place (by creating a better and more humane society). I do think this particular case was a very rare unusual occurrence and as such probably could not have been prevented.

had an email sent to me a while ago, i didn't ask for it and i wish i had never read it. it detailed the horrific things that poor james had inflicted on him.

Mikeyjon, how can you be sure that it was a genuine mail containing accurate information? I'd have binned this instantly. Horrific that it was sent to you unsolicited as it were. Do you know who sent it?

Thompson and Venables....or whatever they are called now are what is called 'evil'. At the age of 10 i knew it was wrong to hurt someone, you have to be some nasty piece of work to do what they did. It gets me so angry.
And who asked if i was running for government? lol. Would you vote me in. lol xx

You dont need to protect your child from such a rare occurence. If you want to learn something, learn what led it to happen in the first place.

No,I wouldnt.

I find this sort of string-em-up mentality really depressing.

Are you a writer for the News of the world? If not you should consider it.

I see the rednecks are back in town.

How do we know she did actually see him? Someone tipped her off. How did they know it was one of them? I wouldn't recognise them now and their pictures as 10 year olds are familiar enough. Such a non story by the NOTW just to incite more hatred.

what a sad topic this is. Wasn't going to get involved but I just wanted to say there has to be a balance maintained in a situation like this, in other words a punishment appropriate to the crime ( in this case a shocking crime)which is tempered with some kind of allowance for the fact that the killers were only children and very deprived/neglected/damaged ones at that as I recall. Baying for blood is both pointless and also reprehensible - it reduces us to the same moral level as the killers. A society where poeple are executed routinely, or else a Sharia system like Saudi - is this what we want? to have thieves punished by amputation? adulterers stoned to death? as other posters have said we can't have it both ways, we either have a liberal justice system which allows all offenders, however vile, a fair trial,or we do not.
I do not understand why Denise Bulger cooperated with the NOTW or whatever publication it is but all it has done is make her feel even worse.These red top rags disgust me and make me so angry I can barely contain myself. They have deliberately inflamed the situation in order to exploit her grief as well as the herd mentality that is so senseless .When teh NOTW printed lists of so called paedophiles a few years ago , all manner of innocent people were beaten up including a paediatrician - people got his job title ' confused'. Well done, tabloids.
Personally I don't know how long those two boys should have served but I don't think having them strung up and tortured will actually bring James back, and it will not make his parents feel any better either.It will just mean two more people have been murdered. I do not believe children are born ' evil' but I do believe very strongly that people who do not pay for and feel genuine remorse for their crimes in life will have to face something afterwards. I am not saying people roast in sulphur - it is far more subtle than that and I don't really understand it myself, but I do have faith that real justice does get meted out somehow.
And BTW ' twatshank' - why would you choose to read books about this sort of thing? in my book that makes you a bit of a saddo....

Good post donnie

I'm not saying that the NOW is right, but I hardly think they can be held responsible for someone's mistake with regard to paediatrician vs paedophile. They didn't print the word paediatrician did they?

Also, again, not suggesting we should adopt limb amputation here or anything, but perhaps if people thought they might get their hands cut off they wouldn't go out every night helping themselves to other people's belongings.

I don't know the answers to tackling crime but I do feel that the softly, softly approach to criminals (ahhh, it's a shame - they are really the victims after all) is not doing this country any favours.

NOW certainly was responsible for whipping up mass hysteria in people too ignorant (or illiterate) to know the difference between a paedophile and a paediatrician

I hate red tops with a passion too

That's a bit of slur on people who read NOW - isn't that stereotyping?

See, we all do it!

er, no. I didn't say everyone who reads NOTW was involved in those lynch mobs now did I

GDG I completely agree regarding the softly softly approach and crime and really believe many crimes should carry much tougher sentances. However I think in a case as extreme as this surely it has to be judged in an individul manner, taking into consideration many many aspects that we could not even begin to cover here. I would hope that when these two young men were released this is what happened, otherwise the system would have failed ALL THOSE INVOLVED again.
What worries me is the clear hatred many have for two boys they really know very little about, yes we know their crime and no-one is saying it was any less than horrendous, but who are we to stand in judgement without being completely aware of all the facts regarding their childhood. Denise Bulger has the right to hate, I'm not sure we do, and what would it achieve, a society hellbent on inflincting revenge on any perpertrators of crime. What would the future hold if we advocated this kind of behaviour as a society.

One more point, what if vigilantes got the wrong guy, surely this could happen, what would all those saying they deserve it think then??

I am sickened by those who encourage the use of violence against others. Yes, I detest what paedophiles do and I abhor the crimes of murderers, but I am not like them and will not resort to their methods of violence and intimidation.

Even James' mum doesn't say she will use violence against Thompson and Venables, so what gives others the right?

On another note, do you think Thompson and Venables truly understood the enormity of death? TV and films these days do rather trivialise it, and I get the impression that the boys' parents probably didn't police their viewing. On top of which, they were young and, allegedly in one case at least, brutalised. Would be interested to hear others' views.

joolstoo, i thought i made clear that the reason i believe we need a criminal justice system is to protect other members of society from those damaged members who perpertrate (sp?) violent acts on others.

to me punishment just compounds the problem: heaping pain on pain doesn't make pain go away.

not all people that have had horrible crimes committed against them or their loved ones feel the need to exact revenge. there is a terrible anger that happens when someone you love is hurt and the gut reaction is to hurt back, but that isn't necessarily going to make you feel better or solve the problem.

call me stupid, but i really believe that only care and love can help in these situations. that doesn't mean letting violent people roam the streets. but i've yet to come across and instance of someone that is a spiteful nasty person that isn't damaged in some way, and can only surmise that this applies all the way along the continuum right up to murderers.

in order to inflict pain on anyone the perpertrator (sp again, can someone help me with this?) needs to dehumanise them. if you are able to dehumanise another i.e. not allow that they are feeling, sensitive beings you are probably someone that has been treated in a way that you are unable to consider yourself as such, let alone another. this usually results from being abused in one way or another by the person that cares for you in early life. there is evidence that this is the case (see my link below), but doesn't your life experience show you this? don't you know people that are difficult to be around or hurtful that you can see are damaged (not to the same extent as above)?

i find the need to argue this so depressing. hate on hate doesn't actually cure hate!