Ralph and Denise Bulger usually went to bed late, and got up late in the morning. Last night had been no different. Their two-year-old son, James, had fallen asleep on the settee just before midnight, and they had left him there until Ralph picked him up at about half past one, when they all went to bed.
Denise, who was 25, liked to keep James by her side. She was the first to concede that she was very protective. Not long before their Register Office marriage three years ago, the couple’s first pregnancy had resulted in the stillbirth of a baby daughter they remembered as Kirsty. They had been together three years when Ralph proposed, on the day the pregnancy was lost. Denise reasoned that it was this loss which had made her so over- attached to James. She did not like him going out with her relatives or friends, and did not want him to go to playschool. He went to bed when she did, and got up when his mother got up.
On Friday morning, the Bulgers were awake and out of bed at about 10.30. Denise was washing in the bathroom and James followed her in, wanting the loo. She organised his breakfast, a bowl of Frosties, and he sat eating them by the fire in the living room with his father.
When they all left the one-bedroomed maisonette at midday, Denise was, as usual, on her way to her mother’s with James. Ralph walked with them through Kirkby, but carried on to visit Denise’s brother, Paul. At 26, Ralph was one of the long-term unemployed. He reckoned he’d been on seventeen training and job creation schemes, not one of which had created a job. Today he was giving Paul a hand putting some furniture together. Ralph, as he sometimes said, was a jack of all trades, a jobber without a job. He could do anything – given the opportunity.
Denise’s mum was out, but one of Denise’s sisters was there and the television was on, showing Neighbours. James played with the sister’s daughter, Antonia, as a succession of relatives passed in and out. Denise was the second youngest of thirteen children, her mother having been one of ten. The core of the family was in Kirkby, and John, Denise, Paul and the others were always in and out of their mother’s home.
Paul’s partner, Nicola Bailey, was looking after John’s three-year-old, Vanessa, that day. She called in to ask Denise to go with her to the Strand. Nicola wanted to change some underwear at TJ Hughes, but had no baby seat in her car. Denise could help her out by sitting in the back with Vanessa. James always liked the drive in Nicola’s car, so Denise said she’d go along for the ride, and Nicola said she’d pop back in half an hour to collect them.
At about a quarter past two Nicola, Denise and the two children, settled now in the B Reg., burgundy Ford Orion, drove through Walton and past the prison to the Strand. They parked on the ground floor of the multi-storey car park, went up the steps to cross the bridge, and entered the shopping centre through Woolworths. Camera 16 recorded them there, at 14.30.34.
Coming out onto the concourse from Woolworths, Denise and Nicola decided to give James and Vanessa a 20p ride on a children’s mechanical seesaw. Then they all went into TJ Hughes so that Nicola could exchange her underwear.
While she was doing this, Denise could see and hear James and Vanessa playing around inside the store. James went to the door, lost sight of his mum and shouted in fright. Denise went over and picked him up, carrying him as they left the shop.
James was almost exactly two years and eleven months old. He would be three on 16 March. He had fair skin and light brown, almost blond hair. He had a full set of baby teeth and his eyes were blue, with a tinge of brown in the right eye.
He was dressed that day in a blue waterproofed, cotton anorak with quilted lining and a hood, which Denise had bought from In Shops in Kirkby. Beneath the anorak was a grey tracksuit, with white stripes down the legs, and beneath the tracksuit was a white T shirt with blue stripes on the back, and green stripes on the front around the word ‘Noddy’. On his feet were a pair of white Puma trainers, and around his neck was a blue woollen scarf with yellow stripes, illustrated with a white cat’s face, and with a white bobble at either end.