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One of UK toddler James Bulger’s killers was so haunted by his victim that he detected “baby smell” on his clothing, a documentary about the infamous murder reveals.
In 1993, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both aged 10 at the time, were convicted of murdering two-year-old James.
The pair snatched the toddler in February 1993 at a shopping centre in Liverpool, northern England, while James’ mother, Denise Fergus, wasn’t looking.
A documentary screened on British TV last night – James Bulger: The New Revelations – described how Venables would strip off his clothes after returning from court.
He would then change into new attire, saying: “I can smell James like a baby smell”.
The documentary also revealed Venables would regularly ask his parents: “Do you think baby James is there in the courtroom?”
Thompson reportedly asked police officers during his interrogation whether the toddler had been treated in hospital to “get him alive again”.
James was lured away by the pair and taken to a nearby train line where he was murdered. Grainy security footage of the toddler following his killers has haunted parents ever since.
James’s death was horrific.
Venables and Thompson stomped on him and broke his bones with pieces of brick before delivering a fatal blow with an iron bar.
The pair were found guilty of murder and detained “at Her Majesty’s pleasure”. There was no set jail term.
The documentary suggests panic drove the pair to carry out the killing.
Arnon Bentovim, a psychiatrist who appraised Venables, told the programme: “Jamie would have been distressed so the whole thing mounts up.
“They’d be out of their depth and the response would be to anger, silencing, anything to shut him up.”
Venables and Thompson were released on lifetime licence in 2001 at the age of 18 under new identities.
Thompson has claimed he had a “better life” in prison after the murder.
The documentary highlighted his 2001 statement to the parole board in which he apologised for James’s killing.
“I do feel aware that I am now a better person and have had a better life and a better education than if I had not committed the murder,” the statement said.
“There is obviously an irony to this but it is part of my remorseful feelings as well.”
Thompson is believed to have made a new life for himself.
But Venables was jailed in 2010 for possessing child abuse images on his computer. He was imprisoned earlier this year for the same offence.
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2018
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