In October 2000, he recommended the tariff be reduced from ten to eight years,[9] adding that Her Majesty's Young Offender Institution was a "corrosive atmosphere" for the juveniles. Before their trial in November 1993, the press ferreted around the doorways and back alleys of Walton village, Liverpool, looking for any thing that might determine that these two 10-year-olds were indeed evil or the product of evil. [18][19] Two people challenged Thompson and Venables, but they either claimed that Bulger was their brother, or that he was lost, and that they were taking him to a police station. The Sessions House, Preston, Lancashire where Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were tried | Shutterstock.com. [47][118] Venables was eligible for parole in July 2011. The Venables household was also fraught but contrastingly so. Jon Venables was just 10 years old when he and friend Robert Thompson murdered toddler James Bulger. "[9] The trial judge Mr. Justice Morland stated that exposure to violent videos might have encouraged the actions of Thompson and Venables; this was disputed by David Maclean, the Minister of State at the Home Office at the time, who said that police had found no evidence linking the case with "video nasties". Start your Independent Premium subscription today. [76] No significant publication or vigilante action against Thompson or Venables has occurred. "[35] The prosecution admitted a number of exhibits during the trial, including a box of 27 bricks, a blood-stained stone, Bulger's underpants, and the rusty iron bar described as a railway fishplate. Three months later, he was found to be in possession of cocaine; he was subjected to a curfew. Mr Venables said: "He wouldn't watch horror. ", Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. He was fearful of the other boy. document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) [135][136], In August 2001, a stage play titled The Age of Consent by Peter Morris was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. What upsets me is I've no way of bringing him up for the rest of his young years so he's going to lose all his childhood. To understand their brutal actions, some have claimed that one of the sequels of Childs Play 1991s Childs Play 3 inspired their behaviour. And when rumours spread that the boys had watched the slasher film Childs Play 3, the debate was reignited. "It was very dark and I shouted down, shouted his name. Robert Maudlsey, the real-life Hannibal Lecter and the UK's most dangerous prisoner. In one of the most chilling photos in He had been quiet that weekend, they said, but they had thought that was because his mother had taken him to the police station on the Friday evening for playing truant. And thats a theory that doesnt stand up to very much scrutiny at all. "[96] Venables began living independently in March 2002. Were environmental factors solely behind this disturbance? [106] Chief Inspector Tracie O'Gara of Lancashire Constabulary stated: "An individual who was targeted four-and-a-half years ago was not Jon Venables, and now he has left the area. But at the age of 27, Venables finds himself back in the headlines and back behind bars having been jailed for two years after pleading guilty to charges of downloading and distributing indecent images of children. [24][31] When Thompson and Venables were questioned about this aspect of the attack by detectives and a child psychiatrist, Eileen Vizard, the pair were reluctant to give details.