On Saturday morning, Bobby had a newly appointed appropriate adult to replace his mother in the interviews. The social worker had arrived at the station the night before, carrying a football comic, a Quizkids magazine, some sweets and a card game, Spot Pairs, to keep Bobby occupied. Together, he and Bobby had watched a children’s video on a portable television in the interview room.
They were back in there at midday on Saturday, for Bobby’s eighth interview. Bobby had an admission to make. He had touched the baby, trying to get him off the railway track. He had lifted him by the belly, with his arms around his chest, but he put him back because he was going to get full of blood. He was sure James had all his clothes on then.
Phil Roberts tells Bobby they’ve been talking to the officers interviewing Jon, and he doesn’t think Bobby’s told them everything. Bobby says he has.
They go over the way that Bobby and Jon came down from the railway line, and then they show Bobby a fluffy toy lamb, brand new, which has been found at the reservoir, and which the investigating team thinks may have been used to lure James from the Strand. Bobby says he’s never seen it before, and he doesn’t know if Jon had it. Why would we want a teddy?
Right, says Phil Roberts, we’re going to go through now, again, what happened to James on the railway. He wants to know the truth, because a little more has happened, a lot more, in fact, than Bobby has said. But I’ve told you, says Bobby. No, there’s been a little more than that. You just said there was a lot more. Right, there’s a lot more, yes.
Roberts says he doesn’t think James had all his clothes on. He did, says Bobby. He didn’t, you know. Well, why would I want to take his clothes off? That’s what I want to know, Bobby. I never even touched him. Well you did, you’ve already told us that you picked him up. I know, I never hit him. You’ve never told us any other way that you’ve touched him, or done anything. Because youse stopped the interview.
They go over what Bobby had said in the previous interviews. Bobby picks up Bob Jacobs for mentioning Jonathan. His name’s Jon. It was after Jon had finished hitting James that he threw a battery at him. It was also after Bobby had put his ear to James’s chest, to see if he was still breathing. The battery hit James in the face. Why did he do that? I don’t know, ask him. Well? I can’t read his mind.
Jacobs says he doesn’t believe Bobby had been standing idly by, and Bobby says he was trying to pull Jon back. Jacobs doesn’t believe that. Bobby says that’s what you don’t believe.
They tell Bobby that Jon has admitted throwing stones and things like that, but is also blaming Bobby for a lot of things. They want to know the truth, especially to do with clothes. Bobby doesn’t even know what they’re talking about.
Again, they go over the sequence of events. Bobby says that after Jon had thrown the paint over James, Bobby told Jon to throw the paint away. He asked Jon why he’d thrown the paint. Jon said because he felt like it. Bobby told Jon he was going, ’cos he kept on hitting him.
The first thing Jon did was throw a brick in James’s face while he was sitting on the wall. James fell on the floor, on his back, and Jon threw a brick on his belly, then he picked up the metal bar and hit him over the head. James had a big cut on his forehead. Jon had thrown the bar at him after James got up again. Bobby demonstrates Jon’s throw, making an exclamation of Jon’s effort, pffff. He doesn’t mean Jon brought the bar right back to throw it, he’s just showing he threw it at him. James fell down again, facing up, and then he wouldn’t move. Bobby was seeing if he was breathing, and told Jon he wasn’t breathing, and then Jon started hitting him with a twig, which was about as thick as a centimetre on one of the little school rulers. He hit him about three times in the face, on the eyes, Bobby thinks, then threw the twig into the nettles. Then Jon threw the batteries at James’s face. He threw one, and then threw the other ones on the floor. Bobby asked Jon why he did it, but Jon just ignored him. He had a smirk on his mouth, like the way he was in the car yesterday. Bobby was crying, trying to pull him back. Then, when Bobby tried to pick James up, Jon said what are you doing, and Bobby said, picking him up. He was doing that so he wouldn’t get chopped in half, to put him on the side, at least. He put him down because he didn’t want to get full of blood. He doesn’t like blood. It stains, and his mother would have to pay. So he put James back down. He wasn’t going to put James somewhere else, because blood was already there, and then they’d think he and Jon had dropped him all over the place. That they’d killed him and then put him in one place and then put him in another and put him in another.
Can we put that heater, that fan on? Can’t you open the door? No, we can’t do that, son.
Bobby never touched James, except for getting him under the fence, seeing if he was breathing and trying to pick him up. Roberts says he’s put all the blame on Jon. He doesn’t believe Bobby. Bobby says you don’t know forcer … exact. He knows he’s never hit him, so he’s got nothing to bother about.
The officers press Bobby, who fences, and finally starts to cry. Is that what you’re trying to say, I’m telling lies and Jon’s telling … swearing on the Holy Bible that he’s telling the truth. Well you can go and ask our teacher who’s the worst out of me and Jon and she’ll tell you Jon.
Roberts says, well, you tell me, you tell. Bobby, you tell me everything that went on, because I’d rather … I told you about eighteen times, says Bobby. He doesn’t know anything about James’s clothing being removed, and he doesn’t know anything about asking James to look into the canal. People can whisper, he says. Jon and youse whisper, you know, everybody whispers. Why would he want to push James into the canal? Why would I want to kill him, when I’ve got a baby of me own? If I wanted to kill a baby, I’d kill, I’d kill me own, wouldn’t I?
Yesterday, says Jacobs, you said your own baby’s family, didn’t you? What do you mean? Well, you said it, when we were talking to you … I know he’s me family, I’m not stupid. I don’t even know what you’re going on about.
Roberts says that when James was found his bottom clothing had been removed. Can Bobby tell them why that is? No. Did Bobby start playing with him? With who? With James’s bottom. No. Are you sure, now? Yeah, I’m not a pervert, you know. Bobby begins crying. Well, how would you like me calling you a pervert?
The buzzer goes, and Bobby says he’s roasting. He goes to the detention room, and sees his mother. ‘He said I’m a pervert, they said I’ve played with his willy.’
*
Jon’s next interview, his seventh, began shortly after Bobby’s. Jon asked if this was the last one. Mark Dale said if he told them absolutely everything they needed to know, it would be.
Jon said he and Robert had not tried to take any other child that day, other than the little boy that the mummy got back. He had never been to the Strand with Robert before, when he had tried to do that. Robert had asked Jon to go the Strand before, but had never mentioned taking little children, there or anywhere else.
The officers go over the route that was taken from the Strand to Walton, and Jon says that they got onto the railway by the wall at the end of the entry opposite the police station. There was a gap there, that you could climb through. They pulled James through the gap, and Bobby, on his knees, pulled James up the slope.
Now, tell me what you do, says Dale, just picture it all in your mind now, yeah. Like you’re watching a film, yeah, and you just tell me, in this film in your head, what’s happening, because it’s easier if you do that, than me keep asking you questions.
Robert opened the paint tin and threw it in James’s face, when they were in the middle of the bridge, and then threw the stick he had used to open the tin down between a gap into the road. The paint went into James’s left eye, and he cried. He put his hand to his face, trying to wipe the paint off. They were walking then, and Robert said is your head hurting, we’ll get a plaster on, and he lifted this brick up, a house brick, and threw it in his face. His face or his head? His head, Jon thinks. James cried and screamed, fell over on his bum, and he got straight back up again. Bobby said to Jon, pick up a brick and throw it, but Jon just threw it on the floor. It was a half brick, and he missed on purpose. Bobby picked the same brick up and threw it again. Jon was trying to stop him doing it. He pulled Robert’s coat for a bit. This second throw hit James in the face and made his nose bleed. Jon doesn’t know what else happened. Jon picked up little stones, ’cos he wouldn’t throw a brick on him. James just kept on getting back up again. He wouldn’t stay down. Robert was saying stay down, you stupid divvy and all that. Jon doesn’t know why Robert wanted James to stay down. He wanted him dead, probably. Robert took James to the other side ’cos there was loads of bricks there and he kept on, he kept on picking them up and throwing them. Jon was holding Robert back, and Jon took some bricks but missed by a, by a mistake. He means, not by mistake but deliberately ’cos he only picked little stones up, the white ones on the track, and threw them at his arms. Jon doesn’t remember what else Robert was shouting. It was last week, he can’t remember anything. James was still crying. Jon was dragging Robert off, going leave him alone, you’ve done enough. Robert threw about ten bricks, Jon only threw six, or five, but he deliberately missed James and hit him once on the arm ’cos he never meant to hit him on the arm. They were house bricks that Jon threw. He hit James twice on the arm, because he wanted to get the bricks at the side of him. Robert said what are you doing, can’t you aim properly. Jon said I see double vision, how am I, how am I supposed to aim properly. He doesn’t think Robert picked up anything else. Oh, yeah, he picked up this steel bar and hit him once. The bar was bigger than a ruler at school. It was made of steel. He knows that because it was heavy. Robert said it was heavy ’cos Jon had picked it up too and he threw it down dead quick ’cos it was too heavy for him. Jon picked it up because Robert said just feel the weight of that. The bar hit James on the head at the side, and Jon thinks he was knocked out then. Then they threw a few bricks at him, and then they ran away. James was making spluttering noises then, lying on the rail, on his tummy. Jon doesn’t know why they ran away. He just said to Robert, don’t you think we’ve done enough now?
Dale asks Jon if he was angry with James when he pulled the hood from James’s anorak. No, says Jon, I didn’t really want to hurt him, I didn’t want to hurt him or nothing ’cos I didn’t want to hurt him with strong things, only like light things ’cos, ’cos I deliberately missed him with the bricks, but not with the stones. So you only wanted to hurt him a little bit? There is a pause. Answer the question, says Neil. Dale says why did you want to hurt him a little bit? I mean, I didn’t want to hurt him really. Robert probably, I thought Robert, Robert was probably doing it for fun or something, ’cos he was laughing his head off and he grinned at me when I was getting in the car, do you know, when we went to the court. In an evil way.
Jon says he doesn’t remember if James was hit with anything else. He did not steal anything in Tandys, and he doesn’t think Robert stole anything. Robert pulled James’s pants off, and his undies. Jon pulled his shoes off. He doesn’t know why. It was last week. He keeps on forgetting.
Just remember, says Dale, I said like a film. Imagine you’re watching a film, just like that. Try that and tell us what’s going on. I can’t see anything, says Jon. Just try and imagine why, what made you pull his shoes off. I don’t know, just mad, I went, I just went like that. I just went like that. Just something to do. Were you angry? Dale asks. Because you sort of clenched your fist then. No, I wasn’t angry, I was upset.
Robert threw the underpants behind him, then picked them up again and put them on James’s face, where there was all blood on. This was after the iron bar had been thrown. Jon wasn’t looking then, he was crying, he was too upset.
Jon begins crying. I don’t want any more now dad, he’s asking me too hard questions. Jon doesn’t know what else happened to James. Robert done all of it mainly.
*
When Bobby’s ninth interview began, just before two o’clock on Saturday afternoon, he had decided, as was his right, not to answer any questions. Jason Lee had retired for a rest, and the solicitor from Paul Rooney’s, Dominic Lloyd, had taken over.
Bobby didn’t want to say his name. Lloyd told him it was all right to say his name. Bob Jacobs asks him if he had spoken to another boy, earlier on the Friday. Yeah, well just listen, says Bobby, breaking his vow of silence, I was told, right, in the paper that the two youths that took James were supposed to have done an old granny over four hours later. The officers say they don’t know anything about that, and that isn’t what they were talking to him about.
Jacobs tries to steer Bobby into speaking about the abduction of Mrs Power’s son. He mentions various shops in the Strand – Mothercare, TJ Hughes – and Bobby says he’s heard of them. Jacobs goes through the statement from Mrs Power, referring to the two boys at the purse counter in TJ Hughes. Bobby says he doesn’t even know what they’re talking about. He’s not saying nothing. He then picks Jacobs up over a detail. He says Jacobs has changed the story. Jacobs says he hopes Bobby’s not going to pick him up every time he changes stories, because Bobby changes stories as well, doesn’t he?
Jacobs ploughs on, through the description of events given by Mrs Power. Bobby quibbles here and there, and finally, when Jacobs gets to the part where a boy has waved Mrs Power’s son towards him, Bobby says Jon could have been making a wave and how was he supposed to hear him say, doing that?
All they want to know, says Roberts, is what happened. Bobby says he never seen Jon do it, but he might’ve sneaky done it. Bobby wasn’t in TJ Hughes, and Jon was with him.
Jacobs then starts to go through the description of the two boys supplied by the mother. A boy with a thin face wearing blue jeans and dark training shoes. Blue jeans? Bobby queries. Well it couldn’t’ve been us, we were in school uniform. The other boy is said to be of stocky build. What’s stocky? Bobby queries. It means fattish, says Phil Roberts. Well, it couldn’t’ve been me ’cos I don’t eat. Everybody thinks I’m skinny. The boy with a stocky build is also said to have a fat face with a full fringe. I haven’t got fat, says Bobby, it couldn’t’ve been me. I haven’t got a full fringe. Where’s my fringe? And I don’t wear jeans.
The interview goes on like this for several minutes, until, finally, Bob Jacobs tells Bobby he is being arrested for the attempted abduction of Mrs Power’s son. He explains that it’s a new thing Bobby is being arrested for. When do I wear jeans for school, says Bobby.
After the arrest, the officers continue to question Bobby about the incident, and he becomes increasingly awkward. They tell Bobby that Jon has said they planned to throw this boy in front of a car. But we weren’t going to take any boy, says Bobby. Well, Jon says you were. So you take everything he says, do you?
Jacobs. And, of course, the main thing is you’d certainly remember if you and Jon planned to take him away …
Bobby. I know.
Jacobs … and throw him under a car, wouldn’t you?
Bobby. You just said in front of one.
Roberts. Well, in front of one.
Jacobs. That’s what I just said, then.
Bobby. You said under one.
Roberts. Under, yeah, well, just a play on words, it’s just a different, you just choose the same word again. He just said another, another different word.
Jacobs. So you didn’t plan that?
Bobby. No.
They produce the map then, and go through it, marking crosses at the various points Bobby has mentioned. He identifies the fence by City Road, at the opposite end of the entry from Walton Lane, as being the place where they got on to the railway line.
The interview ends, and the next one begins four minutes later. Phil Roberts and Bob Jacobs know they are running out of time now, and they can see that Bobby has become obstructive.
They ask him again about James’s clothing being removed, and he again denies it. They ask him if anyone stuck their hand into James’s mouth. Bobby denies it.
Bob Jacobs wants to tell what Jon has said. Most probably, says Bobby that I’ve took everything off him and I’ve been playing with him. Jacobs asks how he knows that. ’Cos I know he’s going to say that. Playing with what? Roberts asks. His privates, that’s what you said before. What do you mean, privates, what do you mean by privates, it doesn’t matter about the words you use? What I say, says Bobby. What, like his penis, is that what you’re saying? ’Cos Jon’s not going to own up, is he? Bobby says. He begins crying. They’re taking what Jon says. Bobby knows he never touched him.
They again ask Bobby if he touched James’s mouth. No. He’s told the truth, he’s not answering any more. Phil Roberts says that Jon admits taking James’s shoes off. Bobby says Jon might’ve taken his pants off, but Bobby doesn’t know ’cos he got down the post. The officers tell Bobby what Jon has said about the removal of James’s clothing. Bobby is having none of this. So, in other words, he says, you’re taking what Jon says and just ignoring me, so I’ll ignore you.
Bobby is asked about the scratch seen on his face later on the Friday evening. He says it was a spot which he had picked. They ask how his face became so mucky with dirty marks.
Bobby. What do you mean, dirty marks?
Jacobs. What I’m saying. You know what dirty marks are, don’t you?
Bobby. Like sex marks?
Jacobs. Like what?
Bobby. Sex marks, dirty.
Jacobs. Sex marks?
Bobby. Like dirty words?
Roberts. No, marks on your face.
Jacobs. Bobby, you know what dirty marks are, don’t you?
Bobby. Mucky marks.
Roberts. Mucky marks, that’s what.
Jacobs. Haven’t you heard the word dirty used about anything but sex before? Do you only think about dirty as being about sex?
Bobby understands now. Ask his mum, he says, when they play out they always get dirty. The dirt hasn’t come from bricks, ’cos he never touched no bricks. Only little tiny ones they were throwing in the water at the canal.
He is asked about the injury to James’s mouth again. He says it might have come off the stick Jon used. It could be like little buds that it caught on and dragged his mouth down. Or the metal bar, ’cos that fell on his head, and then that might have fell on to his face then and pulled it down.
Roberts says he doesn’t want Bobby to get angry, but he’s got to ask these questions. Did Bobby play with his bottom? No, I never. Okay did you, erm, play with his penis? No. But Jon says that you kicked him between the legs; what do you say to that? No.
Jacobs asks if he or Jon tried to cover the body with stones. Jon did, big stones so you couldn’t see his face. He was trying to stop the blood pouring out of his face. Jacobs asks if Bobby helped Jon. Bobby says he stuck one brick on him. It fell off his face. Jon put it on then it would roll back off. Bobby nods his head, yes, he put the brick back on. I haven’t got a toothbrush in here, says Bobby. Jacobs says they’ll speak to someone about getting him a toothbrush. They end the interview.
*
Jon’s eighth interview had begun at twenty past two. The officers reminded Jon of the point he had reached in the previous interview, where James’s clothes had been taken off. Jon said that he and Robert were then pulling bricks onto his face. Covering his face. It was Robert’s idea, so nobody can see him. Jon thinks James was moving, because the bricks were moving a bit, like nearly falling off.
Jon then tells how they ran into Walton village, going through the entries until his mum caught them. He thinks they were on the railway for fifteen minutes, ten minutes, five minutes … no, not five minutes, that would be too short, wouldn’t it?
Mark Dale says he thinks something else has happened that Jon’s missed out. He knows Jon doesn’t want to talk about it, because he started crying before. But he’s got to be brave now, because there’s something important he must tell them, and he knows what it is. Jon says he doesn’t know. Dale says hasn’t he told his mum something today; didn’t someone kick him? Oh yeah, me, says Jon, only light, and I punched him light on the reservoir. Didn’t you push him and didn’t you kick him while you were up at the line? No Robert did. Did he, where? Underneath. Where’s underneath? Jon points to his groin. What do you call it, says Dale, come on, it’s not rude, come on, let’s see what you call it. Willy.
Jon says Robert did that about ten times. He saw his legs going. It was after James’s trousers were taken off. So there was something else, wasn’t there, says Dale. Oh yeah, says Jon. I forgot it. I told me mum last night everything, but it just came out me mind this morning. Dale says, so you kicked him as well, where did you kick him? The chest and the middle there, and I punched him in his face a few times, light. Did you kick him while he was lying down? No, Robert did, you know, he went like that. Stamped on him? Yeah, not in the face I think it was in the legs or something. Dale says they took a pair of Jon’s shoes, and there was blood on them. Jon says he forgot that bit, ’cos he kicked him in the face, and all blood came on his shoes. Jon asks if they took Robert’s shoes. They did. Robert kicked him in the face loads of times. Jon only kicked him once or twice. This happened halfway through when Robert was throwing bricks.
Dale asks if Jon had got mad. Must you have been angry to have kicked him? No, I was upset, well, when I got in I was, and I was crying in bed. Well, I bet you were, says Dale, what were your feelings when you were kicking him? Sad, I wasn’t angry or I wouldn’t have been angry for kick … kicking a baby but I’ve never done it before. Robert most probably did, but I’d never, I’d never done it before.
They speak about the paint on Jon’s coat. He thinks James might have touched him on the coat, when he was kneeling down by him, to see if he was all right, to see if his eyes were all right. James said don’t hurt me and I went all right. Could he say those words, could he? Dale asks. No, he said, I’m all right, I’m all right, he was too, he was scared of Robert, he wasn’t scared of me because I never hit him as much.
Robert didn’t kneel down, he was kicking him in the knees and everything and Jon said will you stop it, Bobby, he’s scared and all that.
They begin asking Jon about the batteries and when it comes to asking why the batteries were there, Jon begins to cry. He doesn’t know. He never put them there. They press him, and he becomes more upset. He says Robert threw them, and Scott says it was a little bit more than throwing them. If he tells them what happened to the batteries it’s all over and done with.
Jon is crying. I don’t know, I don’t know, dad. Scott asks if it’s horrible what happened with the batteries. No, I didn’t know anything what Robert done with the batteries. Why are you crying then? Because you’ll blame it on me that I had them.
Dale asks Jon if he remembers what happened yesterday. When we started talking about all this and you said you hadn’t taken James, yeah, and eventually you got very upset didn’t you, but you felt better afterwards didn’t you, when you told us, and you … but you couldn’t really tell us at first, could you? Why couldn’t you tell us? I’m scared. You were scared, okay, but you got brave didn’t you, you eventually managed to come out with it, didn’t you?
Jon still doesn’t know what happened to the batteries. He is asked if Robert touched James anywhere else. If he did anything else to his willy, other than kicking it. Jon becomes distraught. He doesn’t know. He doesn’t. He doesn’t know. He goes to hit his father. Hey, hey, says Dale, don’t go to punch your dad. Jon says me dad thinks I know and I don’t, you’re saying I do, and I don’t. I only know he got killed.
They ask about the bricks placed over the body, and the placing of the underpants. Jon says they’re believing what Robert says. Dale says Robert is telling them a story, and they need Jon to tell them one as well. They ask about James’s mouth. Jon says he did not put his fingers in James’s mouth. Who did? He doesn’t know, he never saw nothing. Dale says he’s got to admit to himself that he saw everything that happened there, because he was a part of it, so he can’t say he didn’t see. Jon is crying. He didn’t put his fingers in his mouth. He wants his mum. He continues crying and he is inconsolable. He wants his mum. He doesn’t know anything else … end of interview.
*
There had been discussion all day about how long the interviews could continue. Unquestionably, they had enough to charge the boys, but could they elicit further admissions, or were the interviews becoming counterproductive as the boys became tired? In any case, they could only hold Bobby and Jon until early on Sunday morning, without charging them. If they continued to interview it might leave the inquiry open to accusations that they had pushed too hard and too far with the interviews. A judge could throw the lot out.
Phil Roberts made it known that he wanted to continue. It was a frustrating situation, especially with Bobby who had denied so much. There were still so many uncertainties.
Finally, the decision was made. The boys would be charged that evening. The media would be notified, and so too would the Bulger family.
There would be one last session of questioning. The boys would be taken out, separately, and driven over the route to explain exactly which way they had walked with James. It would have been better to walk the route with them, but their safety would have been at risk. They went in unmarked cars, the same people who had been in the stationary interviews, with a back-up car following behind, just in case there were problems. They went at different times, to avoid an unscheduled meeting, and Jon went first.
As they drove down from Lower Lane to the Strand, Jon wanted to know what Dale and Scott would do if there were a whole lot of photographers in the middle of the road taking pictures. Dale said he’d smile, probably. Jon said he’d run them over. He said photographers probably sneaked up on them now. They were good hiders, they go in little gaps and take loads of pictures.
Jon said he was going to sing a song to himself, only they’d be hearing the song all the way through. Dale said he could keep them entertained. They’d have a karaoke. He asked what song Jon had been going to sing. Jon said it was the one thingy sings. He began singing, and carried on, at intervals, over much of the journey.
They drove from the Strand, past the reservoir, through to County Road and on to Walton Lane. Jon saw a boy from school, and pointed him out to his dad. There’s Daniel, dad, you know, from school.
He pointed out the various places they had been, the junctions they had crossed. He said he had been in the entry between City Road and Walton Lane when he threw the hood into the tree, not on the railway line that ran alongside it. He said they had got on to the railway line by the fence on Walton Lane, near the bridge, opposite the police station.
Jon wanted to see how many flowers there were on the embankment at Cherry Lane. Dale said they didn’t want to be going up there. But they stopped at the bottom of Walton Village, and Jon was able to point out Bobby’s house – the one with the policeman outside – and see the flowers on the embankment across the road. Here you are, you wanted to see the flowers. Oh yeah, millions of them.
Jon saw the ‘Have you seen these boys?’ poster in the window of the chip shop. He pointed it out and said it had Merseyside Police and pictures of him and Robert. George Scott said there were a lot of those around. Jon said you don’t need them now, do you. He wanted to know how come his picture was in black-and-white and Robert’s wasn’t. The officers didn’t know.
They began driving back to Lower Lane and Jon said he’d like a drink when he got in. He wanted a Lilt. Then he asked, can fingerprints come out on skin?
*
Liverpool had been playing at home, that afternoon, to Ipswich, and Bobby’s car got stuck in the traffic, leaving Walton Lane for the Strand just after half five. It was a small car and, with five people inside on a cold day, the windscreen was quickly covered in mist, which Phil Roberts, who was driving, struggled to remove.
Bobby was anxious about meeting up with Jon. Where would he be? He wasn’t going to be on the railway at the same time was he? Bobby wasn’t going if he was. The officers told Bobby they were planning to drive along the route and Bobby wanted to know how you could drive a car on the railway.
Once on Stanley Road they followed the route back to Walton, and Bobby showed them where they had got on to the railway, by the bent fencing in the entry off City Road. Jon got over first then Bobby passed the baby over. Jon grabbed the baby, and then Bobby climbed over, on to the railway.
*
It had been decided that Albert Kirby should tell Denise and Ralph Bulger that two boys, aged ten, were being charged with the abduction and murder of their son James. Earlier that afternoon Albert and Geoff MacDonald had driven up to Kirkby with Mandy Waller and Jim Green, the two officers who had first dealt with Denise and Ralph, just over a week ago.
On the Monday, Albert had appointed Mandy and Jim to be the inquiry’s family liaison officers, and they had spent the week shuttling between Marsh Lane and the home of Denise’s mother in Kirkby, where the Bulger family were based.
It had been Jim Green’s job on the Monday to tell Denise and Ralph that James’s body had been cut in half by the train. He had worried over the words he should use, not wanting them to sound blunt and insensitive. In the end he had asked to see Denise and Ralph privately in the kitchen and said, ‘I have to tell you that James’s body had been severed by a train.’
Denise had stood there with her head bowed, showing no reaction, and Ralph had stared with what Jim Green would come to recognise as angry eyes. Ralph had simply nodded in response, and neither he nor Denise had asked any questions.
This was the only detail of the injuries that had become public knowledge, and the police had wanted the family to hear it from them first. Albert’s decision to keep the other injuries from them had made it difficult for Jim Green, who more or less knew everything because he had attended the post mortem, but had to keep the knowledge to himself in all his dealings with the Bulgers.
As the week progressed the family had become increasingly inquisitive. There was some anger, particularly at moments when they felt the police were not doing their job, not following the right lines of enquiry, or not keeping them informed. The sudden flare of publicity over Snowdrop Street did not help. Why weren’t we told? Why are we hearing things from the television? Is this the one? Have you got him?
There had been no time to tell the family of the Snowdrop Street arrest beforehand, and the family liaison officers tried to explain that through the course of the inquiry there might be several such arrests. It would be best not to read too much into them.
One of the many Bulger uncles lived in Walton and picked up various rumours about what had happened and who had been responsible. He had been told that the video footage of the abduction clearly showed the two brothers who had found the body. It was obviously them, why hadn’t the police got them? Mandy checked, and reassured the family that they had been eliminated from the inquiry.
On the initial visits, Mandy was served tea in a cup and saucer from the best china. By the end of the week tea was coming in a mug, and they knew without asking that she didn’t take sugar. Becoming close to the family, exposed to and touched by the intense emotions they were feeling, was hard enough in itself. It was good, that Saturday afternoon, to be the bearer of positive news.
Albert Kirby spoke to Ralph first, and told him they expected to charge the two boys later that day. Were they sure these were the ones? Oh yes.
Albert asked to see Denise, and was taken upstairs to a bedroom, where Denise sat on the edge of the bed, with a box in front of her containing some of the thousands of cards and letters of sympathy that had been arriving for her and Ralph.
Denise did not at first realise who Albert was, and it seemed to him, as he explained what was happening, that he was talking to someone who wasn’t really there. Denise asked no questions of Albert but, back downstairs, the family wanted to know about the boys.
The charges meant that the family was a step closer to getting James’s body released for the funeral. The ages of the boys being charged did not make it any easier for the family to focus responsibility for James’s death. It was frustrating and incomprehensible. They wanted to know why, but there was no explanation that Albert could offer.
*
At 6.15 on Saturday evening, 20 February 1993, Detective Inspector Jim Fitzsimmons charged Jon Venables with the abduction and murder of James Patrick Bulger, and the attempted abduction of Mrs Power’s son.
Jon sat on a stool against the bridewell counter at Lower Lane Police Station. He was drawing on paper as he waited for the charges to be read. His mother and father were behind him, upset and comforting each other. Susan began crying briefly, and Jon began crying too. Then she stopped, and he stopped. When the charges had been read, and Jim Fitzsimmons had explained them to him in simple language, Jon carried on drawing.
Jim then drove down the East Lancs Road to Walton Lane, to repeat the procedure with Bobby.
*
Bobby had been playing Spot Pairs in the detention room with Brian Whitby, the local police youth liaison officer. PC Whitby had been working at Anfield that afternoon during the Ipswich game, and had been asked to sit with Bobby for a while on his return.
Whitby had been in the station last Friday, 12 February, and had worked out that he had been standing in the kitchen area of the canteen, with its large window directly overlooking the railway barely 50 yards away, at about the time James Bulger was killed. He had been having difficulty coming to terms with this, and was having difficulty coming to terms with the idea that Bobby had been responsible. Whitby had known the Thompsons for years, through his work. Bobby had not been high on his private list of suspects.
They chatted idly as they turned the cards, and Bobby said, ‘Can I go home soon, PC Brian? I don’t want to be here any more.’
The bridewell was suddenly crowded, for the first time in days, as the interviewing team, the senior officers, the lawyers and the social workers gathered ahead of the charges. The officers chatted and there was some laughter, an air of relief among them. Normally, this moment in an inquiry would be the prelude to a celebratory party back at the station bar. There would be no party tonight at Marsh Lane. Just a few speeches of thanks from the bosses, and some cathartic consumption of alcohol.
Bobby came out of the detention room, and stood briefly, a small figure lost among the grown-ups. It was as if he could have slipped away without anyone noticing.
Then some of the adults left the bridewell, and Jim Fitzsimmons and Bobby took their places opposite each other across the counter. There was no chair for Bobby, who stood with his head slightly raised, peering up at Jim Fitzsimmons. It reminded Phil Roberts of Oliver Twist.
When Bobby was charged he said, ‘It was Jon that done that.’
Afterwards, his mother, who had been in no state to attend the charges, had to be helped away from the police station. She was in the advanced stages of shock, staggering like a drunk, her whole body shaking uncontrollably, though she was completely sober.
Bobby went back to the detention room and later he fell asleep, while a couple of social workers and a police officer sat there talking. A train went down the railway line, and Bobby sat up. He said, was that a train going past? Yes. Bobby lay down again. I know all the times of them trains.