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WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH CHILDREN WHO MURDER?

Alan Johnson, we have a right to know

Saturday March 6,2010

By Richard and Judy

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(4)

THE surge of horrifiedfascination in the two men who as little boys murdered James Bulger is almost as strong today as it was 17 years ago when they killed the tot on a railway embankment.

Just what has Jon Venables done to merit being hauled back to prison? He’s been out of jail for nearly nine years, as has his fellow killer Robert Thompson. Until now both of them have been off the radar, leading obscure lives under new identities.

Speculation is at fever pitch, with the Government accused of sending out a string of mixed messages. Some ministers think we should be told what’s gone on, others not. Justice Secretary Jack Straw came down hard on Home Secretary Alan Johnson when he said the public had “the right to know”. Minutes later he was backtracking.

And as things stand, we remain completely in the dark.

Theories and wild stories abound. Venables was at risk of attacking another child, some speculate.

He was increasingly off his head on drink and drugs, say others. All we know for certain is that he has breached the terms of his release seriously enough to be locked up again.

And for me that is probably all we need to know. Being told the specifics of the recall wouldn’t alter a thing, would it? Sure, it would assuage our natural curiosity but as we will never know Venables by his new name or even what he looks like after all these years, how would discovering what he’s alleged to have done wrong have any bearing on anything?

Some say it may prove if rehabilitation after such a shocking crime is possible but of course it wouldn’t. At most it would merely tell us that it hasn’t worked in this particular case.

Some of the comments during radio phone-ins this week shocked me. Many callers insisted that Thompson and Venables should have been hanged for what they did to little James.

Even brutal states such as Iran and China, no strangers to the rope, do not as far as I know have a policy of hanging children. Others demanded the cloak of anonymity be stripped from the pair “so we can find them and get them”. So if it’s too late for the hangman let’s resort to lynch law.

These weren’t isolated calls, either. They featured repeatedly on radio and television. It was as if those making them had fallen into a kind of frenzy and lost their grasp of civilised values, let alone rational thought. I know I’ll get angry letters (many of them anonymous) accusing me of being a bleeding-heart liberal but I am very far from that.

I just believe that we need to be clear-sighted, logical, and hold on fast to our humanity in the face of testing cases of this kind.

One bemused phone-in caller from Denmark said that in similar cases involving pre-pubescent child killers in his country the overwhelming response was to view what had happened as a tragedy for everyone involved. That’s a hard credo to observe, to be sure.

But I wonder what Jesus Christ would have had to say on the question.

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WITH REGARDS TO THIS ARTICLE

09.03.10, 6:07am

What good will it do anyone to know anything.
Venables has met all the requirements. He was a child from a terrible background who had no choice in the punishment or rehabilitation program. Why weren't his parents punished? The probation have not done a very good job. They have brought him up too. Why aren't they taken in for questioning? They have been just as responsible for his monster behaviour. No-one will take the can for this. Mrs. Fergus needs to accept that plucking the wings off a spider won't help her. Her life has been ruined but there are no winners in this. He is obviously a destroyed individual - what do people want? My sympathies lie with Mrs. Fergus totally but it is turning into a witch hunt. He would have served time in a prison if those were the rules - but they weren't. What should we all do - what do people want? He was never free - he has been on a register all his life - his life is meaningless.
Probation have earned alot of money from this - what do they have to say.
He does need locking away - he obviously isn't of sound mind - is that rehabilitation. No.

• Posted by: EDH • Report Comment

PRISON?

08.03.10, 5:10pm

these boys where Never IN PRISON they where kept in a secure unit near manchester with weekly access to their familys ,and weekly trips out side .our country does not put children in prison .they where released when they reached the age that would have allowed them to be put into the prison system proper. and this was not allowed to happen because eight years of, therapy, care. rehab ,ect ect.. had been invested in them .their situation is almost unique .as the have never been to prison but are on life licence .which has now recalled ? venables back into the SYSTEM .so to say that he has been sent back to prison is false,and how was this information leaked anyway who among these do gooders had it in them to leak the story .. if they had done some time in the real prison system maybe they would have realised what was in store for them should they reoffend

• Posted by: twin69 • Report Comment

CHILDREN WHO MURDER...

07.03.10, 2:17pm

No one of us is so far from guilt as to say what should or should not be done in awful circumstances such as these. But in response to Richard and Judy's question, I comment that none can know precisely what Jesus Christ would have done.

But as a former biblical follower, I would quote his words from St Luke's gospel: "It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones."

As I say, his words, leaving little doubt as to how strongly he felt in these circumstances.

• Posted by: Bunnyaustin7 • Report Comment

WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH CHILDREN WHO MURDER?

06.03.10, 9:58am

I understand you can't hang a child murderer in a civilised society but it's wrong to go in the opposite direction and pamper them either, which is what happened with these two juvenile murderers. I don't care what the so called 'experts' say - evil in the mind of someone their age won't 'grow out' as they get older. That dark corner of their minds will still be there in adulthood...

• Posted by: skyguy • Report Comment