I can only agree with Michael White writing in the National Press on March 8th that while -

"Everyone remembers the blurred CCTV camera image of Venables and Robert Thompson holding little James Bulger's hand as they took him off to his death in 1993.
It was a chilling one, most people agreed at the time.

BUT the redtop-led thirst for renewed vengeance after Venables was taken back into custody for unidentified transgressions last week is pretty disturbing too, isn't it?"

He points out that the reason that a 'cover' was provided for both defendants on their release was that -

"The original trial judge, Mr Justice Morland, succumbed to public pressure and allowed Child A and Child B to be named, despite their being only 11 years old at the time of their very public trial.

Michael Howard, the then-home secretary, stoked that mood by exercising his power – since abolished – to raise the tariff on the pair's detention to 15 years after Morland's eight-year minimum had already been raised to 10 years by the then-lord chief justice, Lord Taylor."

In her Daily Mail column Melanie Phillips, was careful to condemn mob justice but also complained that Venables was let out to face adult life too soon.

She states that Venables and Thompson hold up "a mirror to society,"

No, they don't. argues White
"They hold it up to a small section of society, which is exploited by not-quite-so-small sections of the media.
No names mentioned.

We know why newspapers, TV and even stately wireless (Radio 4 led its bulletins on this tale) behave as they do in these situations.

It interests the customers and allows those so inclined to luxuriate in a sense of prurient outrage"


I cannot support the excellent rehabilitation programmes for the child soldiers who have committed such terrible atrocities in other countries without also supporting the possibility that children in this country convicted of serious offences, even murder, should have the opportunity to be "rehabilitated".too and not be consigned to an adult prison for life as Denise Fergus demanded.

Erwin James, who served 20 years of a life sentence in prison before his release in August 2004 and author of A Life Inside writes

"But what are we to make of the return to prison of Venables?
We know little about his life and that of his co-accused in the years since they were convicted of murdering Bulger.
At the time when they killed the toddler they were both 10 years old.
It was obvious to anyone who read about their lives before the crime that their formative years had been abusive and damaging.
These were not two well brought up little boys who went to a posh school.
They were rough kids who had experienced more of life's degradations than any child should.
They knew about life on the streets.
Perhaps "feral" would have been an appropriate adjective to describe what they had become.
But those in power used more potent words.
The popular press labelled them beasts, bastards, evil, brutal, cunning, freaks.
Three days after Bulger's body was found, the then prime minister gave an interview to a Sunday newspaper calling for society to "condemn a little more and understand a little less".
And that is what we did.
Lynch mobs gathered outside the court where the two boys first faced charges. The van transporting them to "secure accommodation" was attacked with stones and bottles.
People in the street called for them to be hanged.
But whatever we feel about what they did, they were still only children.
Yet we tried them as adults and sentenced them to be detained at "Her Majesty's pleasure", the juvenile equivalent of life imprisonment."

full article