Insult to my James: Case that horrified the world. Mother 'devastated' by ruling that boys' trial was not fair
By Adrian Addison
THE furious mother of James Bulger last night vowed she would fight to KEEP the two-year-old's murderers caged.
Distraught Denise, 31, blasted yesterday's ruling by Euro judges as an "insult to James's memory."
And she said of killers Robert Thompson and Jon Venables: "They are evil."
The mum - whose marriage crumbled in the wake of the 1993 horror - was "devastated" to learn the pair's trial had been deemed unfair.
Her solicitor told her of the European Court of Human Rights decision as she was taking six-year-old son Michael to his school nativity play.
Denise was sickened as the lawyer explained the rest of the ruling - which could see Thompson and Venables freed in 2002 after just eight years' detention.
She said: "I have to accept the killers will be released one day - but they should serve nothing less than 15 years.
Overlooked
"I am very disappointed by this ruling in which James is really overlooked. The killers have slick lawyers and always get kid glove treatment."
She insisted: "The British Government should not allow the European Court to dictate how we operate our legal system.
"I don't believe the European judges understood what was being put to them and I call on Jack Straw to stand up against them."
Thompson and Venables were aged just ten when they were captured on video snatching James in a Merseyside shopping centre. The harrowing sight of the toddler being led to his doom appalled the world.
Denise added: "How can they say it was unfair that the case was held in an adult court? It couldn't be heard in a juvenile court. It wasn't a petty crime, it was a murder. Where did they want it to be held - At McDonald's?" She said of the killers: "They are being treated as if they are hard-done Bylittle victims. But what about my son's rights? It was James who went through all that hurt, who lost his life, because of them.
"I've never felt the tiniest bit of sorrow for them. I'm full of hate. I never knew it would be possible to hate someone that much. I never knew I had this much hate in me."
Denise split from husband Ralph in 1994 as the stress of their son's murder took its toll.
Last year she married 24-year-old Stuart Fergus and finally seemed to have found happiness. Her lawyer Sean Sexton said: "She has been devastated by the news - although she was fearing the worst. She is allowed to make representations to the Home Secretary. But in reality she can only rely on public opinion.
"She feels it is a matter for this country to take up." He added:
She is almost at the end of her tether. She always thought the boys' lawyers were trying to chip away at the minimum sentence.
Ignored
Whatever form of trial the killers had they would have complained about it.
No reference is made in the summary of the judgment about the rights of the victims' families to approach a court and have their say. The fact that costs have been awarded says something about the fact that victims are very much ignored and killers get their legal costs paid.
Detective Supt Albert Kirby, who led the murder probe, said awarding legal costs to the killers was "disgraceful."
But James's dad Ralph, who also has a new partner, insisted the ruling as a whole was a victory - of sorts.
He said: "We have got what we wanted. The murder verdict stands. I am pleased with the decision."
Meanwhile the judgment was ALSO welcomed by Venables' lawyer John Dickenson. He said: "It's a very sad case but the decision is correct."
Thompson's jubilant lawyer Dominic Lloyd said: "We have had a ruling that the UK has breached my client's most fundamental human rights. It is for the UK to say how it remedies that."
December 17, 1999 | Sun, The (London, England).Author/Byline: Adrian Addison
