Man, 78, Arrested After Grave Of James Bulger Is Vandalised For The Second Time In 6 Weeks

I don’t know what kind of sick fvck you have to be to vandalise the grave of the two-year-old victim of one of the most awful murders in British history, but we may find out now that the culprit is in custody.

A 78-year-old man from Kirkby was arrested at the weekend following the second act of vandalism at the grave of murdered toddler James Bulger in just six weeks.

The violation of the toddler’s grave occurred at Kirkdale Cemetery in Liverpool, where the heads of two marble cherub statues were “scythed off” and taken from the memorial:

These statues had only recently been repaired using donations from a public appeal after a previous attack in February.

James’s mum, Denise Fergus, has issued a plea on social media for the return of the missing cherub heads. A teddy bear was also stole from the gravesite.

I was only young at the time of James Bulger’s murder in 1993 but I remember finding out the harrowing details as I got older. He was abducted from The New Strand shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, by two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.

The boys led him on a 2.5-mile walk across Liverpool, eventually arriving at a railway line in Walton. There, they subjected him to a prolonged and brutal assault using bricks, stones, and a 10kg iron bar. To cover their crime, they laid his body across the tracks in hopes that a passing train would make the death appear accidental. His remains were found two days later; forensic examination confirmed he had died from his injuries before being struck by the train.

A pathologist’s reported listed the following injuries to the 2-year-old’s corpse:

• 10 distinct skull fractures caused by the iron bar.
• Severe brain damage and internal haemorrhaging.
• Significant bruising and a grooved mark on the right cheek consistent with being kicked with force.
• Blue modelling paint had been thrown into his left eye.
• Evidence of being kicked and stamped on.
• Batteries forced into his mouth.
• Body severed in half by a train after he had already died.

Just awful and makes it that much worse that James Bulger’s mum and family have to deal with incidents like his grave being desecrated 30+ years after the murder. I’m guessing this 78-year-old man has serious mental health issues because it’s just incomprehensible that anyone would do something like this.

As of today, Jon Venables is still in prison. He had actually been released and given a new identity in 2001 but recalled to prison in 2010 after child abuse images were found on his computer. He was released again in 2013, and recalled again in 2017 after more child abuse images were found on his computer. Since then, his parole hearings have repeatedly kept failing.

As for Robert Thompson, he has remained free since 2001 when he was released at 18 years old. He has since claimed that killing James Bulger ‘gave him a better life.’ Grim.