The mother of James Bulger, the toddler snatched from a supermarket and murdered by two ten-year-olds in 1993, says she’ll never forgive the killers.

💔 “They Were Never Truly Punished” — James Bulger’s Mother Breaks Silence on Her Son’s Killers, 32 Years After the Murder That Shook Britain

It’s been more than three decades since the tragic day that shattered a nation — yet for Denise Fergus, the pain of losing her little boy James has never faded.

James Bulger was just two years old when he was abducted from a Merseyside shopping centre in February 1993 — led away by two ten-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, in a crime so chilling it stunned even hardened detectives. What happened next would forever haunt Britain’s collective memory.

Today, 32 years later, Denise says she still wakes up every morning with the same unbearable thought: her son never got justice.

“They were never truly punished for what they did,” she says, her voice trembling. “My little boy was tortured and murdered, and they walked free with new names and new lives. Where is the justice in that?”

A Crime That Stopped the Nation

On February 12, 1993, tiny James Bulger wandered just a few steps away from his mother at the Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Liverpool. Within seconds, he was gone.

CCTV footage later showed two small boys leading James away by the hand — Venables and Thompson. At just ten years old, they had plotted one of the most horrifying crimes in British history.

James was taken to a nearby railway line, where he was tortured, beaten, and left to die. The details of the case were so shocking that even veteran police officers wept.

The story dominated headlines for months. Britain struggled to comprehend how children could commit such an act. When Venables and Thompson were convicted later that year, they became the youngest convicted murderers in modern British history.

Yet their sentence — detention until the age of 18 — left many outraged.

“They took a life, and they were given their own back,” Denise says bitterly. “They were given education, protection, and even new identities. Meanwhile, I visit a grave.”

“They Got a Second Chance — James Didn’t”

After serving eight years, both killers were released in 2001 with lifelong anonymity orders and new identities — a move that sparked public fury.

Denise remembers the day she found out they were free.

“I felt sick,” she recalls. “They were being treated like victims — as if society owed them something. But my son, who was only two, was left to die alone on a cold railway track. They got a second chance at life. James didn’t.”

Over the years, Denise has fought tirelessly to keep James’s memory alive — founding The James Bulger Memorial Trust, campaigning for victims’ rights, and fighting to keep Venables behind bars after repeated breaches of his parole.

Venables has been re-arrested several times since his release for offences including child pornography possession, while Thompson has remained out of public view under his secret identity.

Denise says those repeated offences prove her point.

“They said he was rehabilitated — but how can someone who does that kind of thing ever change?” she asks. “It’s a lie. Venables has shown who he really is, time and time again.”

The Pain That Never Ends

Despite the passing years, Denise says the wound has never healed.

“People think time makes it easier. It doesn’t,” she admits. “You just learn how to hide the pain a little better.”

She describes how birthdays, anniversaries, even seeing other children playing in the park — all bring back the same ache.

“I see boys who are James’s age now — grown men with their own children — and I think, that should have been my son. He should have had a life, a future. Instead, I’m left with memories and a headstone.”

Denise’s courage in speaking out has made her one of Britain’s most admired yet heartbroken mothers. Her fierce determination to fight for her son’s memory has touched millions.

Still, she says what hurts most is knowing that the killers are living freely, possibly among unsuspecting communities.

“They’ve got new names, new faces, and government protection. The rest of us have to live with what they did,” she says. “It’s wrong on every level.”

A Nation Still Haunted

Even now, 32 years on, the James Bulger case remains one of the most haunting in British criminal history. Psychologists, lawmakers, and ordinary citizens still debate what drove two ten-year-old boys to such brutality.

But for Denise, the question isn’t why — it’s how could society ever forgive them?

“I’ll never forgive them,” she says firmly. “Not ever. They took my baby and destroyed my family. Forgiveness isn’t possible when there’s no real punishment.”

“Justice Was Never Done”

Every February, Denise visits James’s grave — often leaving a small toy, a red balloon, or a note written in her own handwriting.

“I still talk to him,” she says softly. “I tell him I love him. I tell him I’m still fighting for him. I always will.”

She pauses, wiping away tears.

“People say justice was served, but it wasn’t. Justice would mean James being here today, laughing, living his life. Instead, I’m the one serving the life sentence.”

As she speaks, her voice carries both exhaustion and defiance — the sound of a mother who has spent more than half her life fighting for truth and recognition.

“I’ll never stop,” Denise vows. “The system failed James once. I won’t let it fail him again.”

Three decades on, Britain still remembers the tiny boy in the blue jacket — hand-in-hand with his killers, walking out of a shopping centre and into history.

For Denise Fergus, the image will never fade. Nor will her fight.

“All I want,” she says, her voice breaking, “is for people to remember James — not as a victim, but as my beautiful little boy who deserved so much more.”