Both Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were born to ill-educated, working class parents, the details of the boys’ lives constitute a veritable catalogue of social ills. Venables’ parents were unstable and depressed and the father eventually abandoned the family. The boy’s older and younger siblings were both developmentally challenged and he suffered the brunt …show more content…
Evidence at the trial of the two perpetrators indicated that there were points along the way that they could have changed their course of action. In total, 38 witnesses saw the boys pass but only two inquired about the situation, but both times the boys evaded them by lying and denying, claiming that James was their younger brother or that he was lost and they were taking him to the police station. Instead, they brutalised, sexually molested, and battered the child to death with 27 bricks and an iron bar before laying his body across the tracks in hopes of hiding evidence of their involvement in his death. What made the murder so controversial is not only the gruesome acts, but the unbelievable fact that two ‘angelic looking’ ten year olds could inflict 42 injuries onto a toddler’s body (Dr William – …show more content…
Even though it only lasted 17 days, it shocked the whole world with an unbelievable murder, which effected England’s image of being a ‘secure and safe’ world country. The case caused Britain into anguish and moral panic, so much so that the Shadow home secretary Tony Blair had to give a speech in Wellingborough to calm the nation, during which the Home Secretary said "We hear of crimes so horrific they provoke anger and disbelief in equal proportions... These are the ugly manifestations of a society that is becoming unworthy of that name”. The case caused havoc and made the country feel insecure, disbelief and damaged the country’s representation of a ‘safe and secure’ country, because as Tony Blair says “the crimes were so