James Bulger Case, on TV now

[Lizzylou]

I remember this from when I was a student, but it didn't connect with me (although I was horrified) as much as now, as a Mom of 2 boys (one of whom is a toddler). James Bulger's mother seems so dignified, I'm not sure I could be in that situation.

I take it no one knows then?

I find it more shocking still that so many adults saw the trio, with James crying and dishevelled enough for them all to notice him, to be concerned for him, and to realise something was wrong but to be too busy or too wrapped up in themselves to step in and act like responsible adults.

That's what scares me most about this case devout.

Wasn't there 30 or something some saw James laughing, others saw him crying and being hurt yet thought it was okay

Makes me very wary I saw a woman dragging her son along one day and he was screaming and I thought what if?... he's being grabbed what if he's been hurt it doesn't bare to think of thing is though how do you approach that?

I suppose though it'd be totally diiferent with two kids.

Something that always stuck in my head about the case was going to Canada a few years later and everyone who knew I was English said to me ?isn?t it terrible?? the fact that where ever you went people knew about it. The other hard thing for me is that these boys are my age and I couldn?t get my head around that, I couldn?t imagine hurting someone and the idea that kids my age were doing that scared me.

Looking at Dante Arthurs I can see why people would think it was the same man

I wonder where people think the boys spent their sentence, I?m sure most people won?t be thinking it?s where they were. I don't think that they were left in prison to get ideas from other inmates, they were looked after and taught to be better adults. I'm sure if they hadn't proven themselves after 8 years they wouldn't have been let out. If they've proven they can be let out then they need to be allowed a new life or they'll be killed themselves.

There was another child murderer, who was granted anonymity when she was released; it was only when there was a documentary on her years later her daughter who was mid-teens then found out who her mother was. Just read someone else talking about her, it was Mary Bell.

Yes, I agree it's hard to intervene with adults, but with children? I am sure they are all haunted by it, but surely that's the real lesson of this case. That if you hurt kids, you damage them with unknown consequences, and if you see a child alone or in trouble, do something. I remember seeing a tiny toddler in a nappy and vest wandering alone by a really busy road in the rush hour in winter and there were people walking around him to get to the station! I picked him up and started looking around with the aim of taking him to the police station if nobody appeared, when his mum ran up to me - he'd slipped out of what she thought was a closed front door. Just think what could have happened to him, and people were ignoring it under their noses. Unbelievable.

devout por baby doesnt bare thinking about again glad he was okay though.

My son went missing for 20 minutes one day he'd snuck out of what we thought was a locked front door left the garden and wandered out I was at workk and DP went to toilet for 2 minutes then he was gone, luckily was fine in a garden 2 houses up but terrified me.

A child near us went when I was a teen, he was around 2. They found him in the river a week later , just went from his ront agrden (tgis was a different era, 2 yearolds played in gated gardens then- paper boy had left gate open)

Still makes me sad

I think it's easy for people to voice the opinion that these boys should never be released because of how evil they were. But in actual fact, none of us actually knew them personally, we only knew what we've read about them in the media, and let's be honest, what they did was so terribly shocking that no paper in the country would dare publish anything remotely positive about them, even years after the crime. We can form our opinions based only on the knowledge we have gained, whereas those who were responsible for the boys' rehabilitation would have known them personally, would have had an awareness of the kind of people they were, and whether they had been rehabilitated into decent human beings.

As for people working with them discussing them and claiming they knew where they were/what they'd done, i can only imagine that someone who had encountered them would be only too keen to tell the world about it. People are like that after all. And if Arthur Dante (or was it the other way around - can't remember) was one of the bulger killers, what could be gained by denying that? And I sincerely doubt the Australians would want to keep it a secret if he'd been sent over there under a new identity and had committed murder over there. And let's not forget that it's only the English press who are banned from reporting the whereabouts of the two boys.

I am intreagued as to why no-one ever speaks of Mary Bell with such hatred. She murdered twice after all, and on one occasion even joined the search party to help look for the missing child she had murdered some hours previous. Is it because people weren't around to read about her crimes? Or perhaps because she's a woman? People say that Thompson and Vennibles shouldn't be allowed near children, yet Mary Bell has a child of her own. What makes that acceptable then?

Snopes is interesting but the thing is I didn't get the information from an email but from a PO who had worked with V&T in the UK and recognised one of them in Australia.

(Although it's entirely possible the PO who spoke to me was exaggerating or showing off - people do and POs are just as fallible as any other human beings.)

there is the MOST horrific story in the news at the moment, a 14 year old repeatedly gang raped by feral teenagers, and what is really chilling is that many adults saw her being brutally assaulted and did NOTHING. Not onlyl did they not intervene, but they did not even call the police. We must all take personal responsibility.

Yes, I saw that story, horrible. Poor girl. Doesn't she have learning difficulties as well? Appalling that people saw what was happening but didn't rescue her or call the cops.