I am well aware of the specifics of what happened and read court transcripts and medical report references during my degree.
Do you find it more 'sickening' me expressing a justified legal opinion, or other posters expressing that they hope Venables is raped and murdered?!
Remember that jb is a convicted child murderer in the most callous manner. He may well be a miscarriage of justice, but people who do believe him guilty are entitled to feel the same level of revulsion if not more for him, than Venables.
Hi Petey,
I agree. People are always emotive when children are involved (and rightly so), however, Thompson and Venables were also children when they committed the offence. This isn't an excuse, simply a fact and whatever their reason, it can't be measured against that of an adult such as Mark Bridger. It was horrible, sad and unforgivable but they were 10 years of age!! Obviously they knew it was wrong but they didn't know the magnitude of their actions and perhaps given their backgrounds, they didn't have the emotional maturity to understand the consequences for both poor James and those that loved him.
Reading the background of the case, it's interesting that at the time, Thompson was seen as the instigator because he seemed less emotional (although they both blamed each other), however, only Venables (as far as we know), has reoffended. I don't know what kind of support systems were put in place to monitor them on release and perhaps there was a failing there. People will complain that tax payers money shouldn't be spent of them - but left to their own devices, they would have no chance.
I wouldn't be comfortable with the idea of locking them up for life, however, I think they were released too quickly and the outside support network obviously failed as far as Venables is concerned.
