By The abduction and murder of the toddler horrified the nation in 1993.
Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were 10 years old when they murdered James, having abducted him from The Strand shopping centre in Bootle. Today marks what would have been James Bulger’s 31st birthday.
A two part-documentary, which aired over two nights last week on Channel 5, tells the definitive story of what happened to the toddler after he was lured away from his mother in a Liverpool shopping centre and murdered by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.
Robert and Jon, aged 10
James’ mum Denise Bulger, now goes by the name Denise Fergus. Following the horrific events of 1993, she split from James’ father Ralph and remarried. However, before that, the couple had another child together, a son named Michael.
James’ brother Michael, 27, and half-brothers Thomas, 22, and Leon, 21, spoke in the two-part documentary, Lost Boy: The Killing of James Bulger, Channel 5.
“We have always grown up knowing he was there, what he was like, his character. In the household, we talk about James a lot.
“My mum will give us little stories and insights about what he was like. He has always been a character we wanted to know more about, wishing he was there, rather than someone who was in the background all the time.”
Ralph and Denise with their second son Michael
Leon adds: “Still now I can’t fathom exactly what happened – I don’t really want to know all the details about it.”
Michael also tells how mum Denise Fergus would always walk behind them in shops to keep them in her field of vision.
“We are a closer family because of what happened,” he adds, “we do spend more time together than some other families.”
Michael recalls: “Going through school I wasn’t allowed on school trips or to go to the shops with my mates.
“The only place I was allowed was either in the front garden or literally outside the gate with my mates, but I would have to be in view of the window, so if I went out of sight, Mum would be straight out.”
On February 14, police found James’ body on a railway embankment, his injuries showing that he’d been murdered.
He suffered 42 injuries, so many that a pathologist was unable to isolate the fatal blow. Venables was identified after a neighbour saw him with paint on his coat, and was linked to Thompson who’d avoided school with him.
The chilling CCTV footage of James Bulger walking to his death Credit: Shutterstock
