The Sleep of Reason: The James Bulger Case (9 page)

The boys walked back down Walton Village, past the video shop to the Chinese chippie on the corner. Bobby waited outside while Jon went in. Then they both went back to the video shop, and Bobby handed Joanne the three pounds.

Joanne took the money, and separated a pound coin. She had it in her hand, passing it over the counter to Bobby when the door opened and Jon’s mother came in. She was angry, shouting at the boys about sagging school, and telling them they were going to the police. She grabbed Jon by the hair and Bobby by the wrist, and dragged them both out of the shop.

Joanne still had the pound coin in her palm.

Jon’s mother, Susan Venables, had seen the boys as they walked down Walton Village, and had watched Jon going into the chippie. She had been out looking for Jon, with her eldest son Mark, and had immediately hidden when she saw him – in case he saw her and ran off. Once Jon and Bobby were in the video shop she pounced, knowing there was no escape.

That morning, after Jon had left for school, she had gone shopping with her ex-husband, Neil. They had eventually made their way to her mum’s, and in mid-afternoon her mum had given them a lift back, dropping Neil at his home so that he could meet Jon from school, and taking Susan on to her house in Norris Green, ready to meet Mark and Michelle when they arrived back from their school on the bus.

Neil had been outside the school in Bedford Road at half three, waiting with the other parents for the children. One of the dinner ladies had told him that Jon had run out of school at mid-day. Neil had tried to phone Susan, but she was already on her way back, on the bus with Mark and Michelle.

When Susan arrived at Neil’s he told her. ‘No Jon.’ He said the dinner lady had told him Jon had run off with Bobby Thompson. He said the dinner lady had described Bobby Thompson as ‘a fucking little git’, and had said that their Jon was a good kid when Bobby wasn’t around.

Neil had gone out then, looking for Jon on County Road without success. Returning to the maisonette alone, he had asked Susan if she thought he should go to the police, but she had said they should wait until six-thirty in case Jon came home.

At six-thirty Susan had set off for the police station, taking their thirteen-year-old, Mark. They had walked through Walton Village, passing Bobby’s house. Susan hadn’t bothered knocking there, because she knew she wouldn’t get any sense out of them.

At the bottom of the village she had remembered the last time Jon sagged with Bobby, and Jon saying that he had gone on to the railway with Bobby, who had a den along the line.

Susan had crossed over by the How and walked up the roadway from Cherry Lane to the fencing along the railway embankment. She had stood there for a few minutes calling out Jon’s name along the railway. She had not called Bobby’s name.

Then she had walked round the corner, under the railway bridge and into the police station. She told the duty officer, PC Osbourne, that her son was missing, after running out of school that lunch-time with Bobby. She said it had happened before and she had reported it then, too.

PC Osbourne had leafed back through the MFH register, and found the old entry:

Sub
Div
Ref.
No.
05
C2
1999
92.
Jon
Venables
DOB:13.08.1982.
Reported
missing
from
home
from
11.00
hours
26.11.1992.
He
was
with
Bobby
Thompson
of 223
Walton
Village,
Liverpool
4
and
both
had
run
of
out
of
school
that
day.
At
17.30
hours
that
day
both
Jon
Venables
and
Robert
Thompson
had
been
seen
outside
Kwik
Save,
County
Road
by
neighbours,
and
when
challenged
made
vee.
Both
had
been
traced
at
20.00
hours
the
same
day,
in
Walton
Village,
Liverpool
4.

PC Osbourne had then turned to a fresh page in the MFH register, and completed a new entry:

Walton
Ln
Sub
Div
Ref.
No.
05
C2
29
93.
Jon
Venables,
born
13.08.1982
had
gone
missing
at
12.00
hours
12.02.93.
Sex
male,
height
4’
8,’
birth
place
Liverpool,
with
a
squint
in
his
right
eye,
wearing
Bedford
Rd
St
Mary’s
Sch
uniform,
and
that
he
had
run
out
of
school
in
company
with
a
Robert
Thompson.
Reported
by
mother
at
19.00
hours
12.02.93.
Friends,
relatives
to
be
checked
as
follows:
223
Walton
Village,
Liverpool.

PC Osbourne had told Susan that he would circulate the details, and that an officer would check at Robert Thompson’s address. Susan had told PC Osbourne that she had been looking around County Road and Walton
Lane. She had then given PC Osbourne a photograph of Jon, in his school uniform, taken just before Christmas.

Susan and Mark had left the police station, walked back under the railway bridge, and had just got to the corner, facing Walton Village, when Susan had seen Jon and Bobby, and gone into hiding.

Bobby struggled as they left the shop, and collapsed crying on the floor outside, so Susan let him go, and Bobby ran off as she held on to Jon, belting him a few times.

‘Where’ve you been?’

‘County Road.’

‘All afternoon?’

‘Yes.’

When Susan got Jon to the police station she could see in the light that he was very dirty, and that there was something on his sleeve.

‘What’s that?’

‘Paint. Robert threw it at me.’

‘Where’s it from?’

‘He stole it from a shop on County Road.’

Susan saw the paint on his hands and noticed how dirty they were. Usually he was quite clean coming home. She turned to PC Osbourne.

‘Look at the state of him.’

She asked PC Osbourne to give Jon a good telling off.

PC Osbourne asked Jon where he’d been. With a friend. Is that Robert Thompson? Yes. PC Osbourne then shouted at Jon about the police time he had wasted and the paper work. Jon began to cry but, PC Osbourne noted, there were no tears in his eyes.

PC Osbourne endorsed the back of the MFH report: ‘Found by mother, Walton Ln L4 19.15 hours 12.02.1993.’ He handed back the photograph of Jon, and Susan Venables left the police station with her son.

Back at Neil’s, Susan told Jon about the report she’d seen on the television. A two-year-old boy had been abducted from the Strand shopping centre. Jon was shocked, and asked where the boy’s mother had been. Susan told him the mother had been inside a shop, and had only left him for a minute. He asked who it was and Susan said it was a little boy, but it could have been him.

She then gave Jon another good telling off, and told him to get undressed and into bed. She noticed more paint on his trousers as she threw his clothes into the corner, and was even more angry. Jon kept apologising and when Susan went downstairs she could hear him crying and sobbing for a good half-hour.

He came down and apologised again for worrying his mum. Susan made him a cup of tea to take back to bed, but refused to give him his meal, because he hadn’t been home at the right time. Jon went back to bed still
crying. Susan thought he sounded broken-hearted – but he’d never seen his mum in such a temper before.

When she looked in later he had quietened down, and asked Susan to close the bedroom door. When she went in again he was asleep.

Neil had popped out to visit some friends who lived nearby. The woman had just come out of hospital, and her daughter arrived not long after Neil. He told them about Jon sagging school. Then there was a knock at the door and Susan came in. She told them about the police station, and finding Jon in the village. She mentioned that he had been shoplifting with Robert Thompson, that he had paint on his coat, and had been on the railway line.

*

When he wriggled free of the clutches of Susan Venables, Bobby ran home in floods of tears. Mrs Venables had hit him, he said between sobs. His mother, Ann, noticed the scratch on his cheek and the redness around one eye, like the impression left by a smack. Mrs Venables had no right, she said, and decided to go to the police.

Ann already knew Bobby had not been to school. Ryan had told her when he came home at four o’clock. Bobby had met Jon Venables by the school gates and they had gone off together, said Ryan. All this was forgotten in the drama of the moment.

Ann sent Ryan over the road to call out her friend Lesley for support. Lesley met them outside the house and examined Bobby’s injuries. She thought the scratch looked more like a cut made by a small fingernail.

‘Jon Venables’ mum ragged me out of the video shop,’ Bobby told her.

They set off for the police station, and stopped at the video shop on the way. Ann asked Joanne if she had seen Mrs Venables hit Bobby. Joanne said no, Bobby had already had that cut on his cheek, but he had been dragged out of the shop. She noticed that Bobby’s face looked cleaner now.

Outside the shop, Bobby saw two young girls who, he told his mum, had watched him being attacked by Mrs Venables. They told Ann that Mrs Venables had got Bobby on the floor. This was good enough for Ann, who wanted to report Jon’s mother.

As they entered the police station, the local youth liaison officer, Brian Whitby, was also on his way in. He knew Ann and Bobby. ‘Hello,’ he said, looking at Bobby’s face. ‘What have you been up to?’

Bobby muttered something incomprehensible. Ann seemed to be angry at him, and Bobby appeared flustered. Brian Whitby asked them to wait for the duty officer, and went into the station.

PC Oughton came out, and Ann went into the story about Bobby being assaulted by a woman called Venables. PC Oughton looked at Bobby’s face,
and could see only dirt. He told Bobby to go and swill his face in the gents’ toilets. Ann led Bobby into the ladies for a wash and presented him back at the counter for inspection.

It didn’t look much of a wound to PC Oughton. All he could see was a small piece of broken skin by Bobby’s left eye. He told Ann this hardly justified a charge of assault.

Ann went on about Mrs Venables. She’s an alcoholic, Ann slandered, lives over by the flyover on Breeze Hill, and is separated from her husband. I know why she’s done this, said Ann. Her son’s been sagging school with mine, and she thinks Robert’s leading her Jon astray.