James Bulger 'Battered with Bricks'

CASE 1 - Bulger

James Bulger 'battered with bricks' Tuesday 2 November 1993

JAMES BULGER, the Merseyside toddler whose mutilated body was found on a railway line at Walton, Liverpool, in February, was violently attacked with bricks, stones, and a piece of metal by two 10-year-old boys who abducted him from a shopping centre at Bootle and took him on a two-mile walk to his death, a jury at Preston crown court heard yesterday. James, aged two, died from multiple injuries to the head, said Richard Henriques, QC, prosecuting. His body was then placed on the railway track and was cut in two by a train; according to a pathologist's evidence, the toddler was dead before he was hit by the train. The two boys, both now 11, deny abducting and murdering James. They also deny attempting to abduct another child. Mr Henriques claimed that both boys intended to kill James or cause him serious injury, that both acted jointly throughout, and that both knew what they were doing was seriously wrong. Sitting on raised seats in the dock, the accused boys sat with two social workers as Mr Henriques outlined the prosecution case. Both were smartly dressed in dark blazers, one wearing a white shirt and a dark blue striped tie and the other a blue shirt and a red tie with a light stripe. From time to time one of the boys glanced nervously at his parents, sitting close by. The other removed his jacket and gazed at the ornate ceiling and chandeliers of the wood-panelled courtroom. Mr Henriques told the jury of nine men and three women that James was the only child of Ralph and Denise Bulger, of Kirkby. On Friday February 12, James and his mother drove to the Strand shopping centre at Bootle with her sister-in-law, Nicola Bailey. They visited various shops and on several occasions James broke free from his mother and ran off. He seemed to be in high spirits - in one shop a baby suit fell on his head and he started throwing it about. In Tesco he helped himself to some Smarties. At about 3.40pm they went into a butcher's shop. Mr Henriques said: 'Mrs Bulger believed James was by her side when she was being served - but when she looked down, he was gone.' Mrs Bulger ran in panic out of the butcher's shop and was filmed by one of 16 security cameras searching for her son. Little more than a minute later James was filmed going across the upper level of the complex close to the two defendants, Mr Henriques said. From the moment James was first seen on camera with the two boys to the time he left the centre with them was one minute 39 secs, said Mr Henriques. 'It can be deduced that they left the precinct with some haste.' He then described how witnesses had seen James with the two boys during the two-mile journey which lasted two hours and ended with his death. Many of them noticed that the boy was distressed, said Mr Henriques, but all seem to have assumed that he was in the care of an older brother or brothers. Some witnesses said James was crying and extremely distressed, some that he was laughing. Several noticed injuries to his head - a mark on the forehead and a bump on the right side, another bump on the top of the head, a graze on the face, a red mark on the cheek. Many reported that the little boy was held by the two older boys, one on each side, by his arms or his hands. One said they were dragging him and claimed that one of the boys kicked him in the ribs - 'not a full-blooded kick, but one of persuasion,' said Mr Henriques - and yet another said the two boys swung the child up as if in rough play. At one point, a woman saw a boy take hold of the little boy by the shoulders and shake him briskly. One woman who asked if the older boys knew the toddler was told they had just found him and were taking him to a police station. But later, approached by a school friend, one defendant said the little boy was the other's brother. Mr Henriques told the jury: 'You may wonder why we go through this journey in such detail. One of the matters the prosecution seek to prove is that this whole thing was a joint enterprise from beginning to end. You will see time and again how each boy has hold of one hand. Each plays a significant part.' There were further sightings of the three near the railway line about two hours after James's abduction, said Mr Henriques. A man who saw them in an entry to a railway bridge heard one of the older boys say: 'I'm fed up having my little brother, he's always the same, I'm not bringing him again.' A 14-year-old girl saw one boy run up the embankment leading to the railway line while the other followed, carrying the small boy, who was laughing. 'That may well be the last time anyone other than the two defendants saw James alive,' said Mr Henriques. James's severed body was found two days later with multiple fractures to the skull, lacerations, and damage to the mouth and lower lip. The right cheek showed a patterned bruise consistent with a blow from a shoe or other object. Bricks nearby had blood on them and blood was found on the shoes of both defendants. Tests on the blood found on one boy's shoes matched the DNA profile of James's blood, and modelling paint found on the body and at the scene matched paint on both boys' clothing. Mr Henriques alleged that earlier in the day, before James was abducted, the two boys had attempted to abduct another two-year-old boy at the Strand, but the child's mother spotted them and shouted to him to come back. There was tight security around the court, with barriers lining the pavements and a nearby street sealed off. Before the hearing a small crowd gathered at the front, including reporters, cameramen, and television crews, several from overseas. More onlookers waited at the back of the building, where the rear gates opened at 9.30am to admit two white police vans with a motorcycle escort. The windows of both vans were blacked out. Since the defendants' arrest last February they have been kept in the care of Liverpool city council. The Judge, Mr Justice Morland, has ordered that neither of the defendants is to be identified. They are to be referred to as 'Child A' and 'Child B' and child witnesses are to be identified only by letter as well. The trial continues today and is expected to last up to four weeks.

Tom Sharratt - guardian.co.uk, CASE 2 – Edlington

TWO BOYS 'TORTURED' IN BULGER-STYLE CASE Monday, 6th April 2009

Two young brothers, aged just 10 and 11, have been charged with attempted murder after a nine-year-old boy and his 11-year-old uncle were attacked and injured, the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK has said.

Police were called to the Brick Ponds area of Edlington on Saturday afternoon after the 9-year-old boy was found in the street bleeding "cut from head to toe".

The 11-year-old was later found semi-conscious in a railway cutting. He was airlifted to Sheffield Children's Hospital where his condition was described as critical but stable in intensive care.

'Covered in blood'

Officers from South Yorkshire Police are carrying out house-to-house inquiries to try to establish what happened.

Local residents told BBC News they believed the two boys had been hit with a brick, slashed with a knife and burned with cigarettes.

It is thought their mobile phones, trainers and about £3 ($AUD6) in cash were stolen.

Local resident Lisa Meehan said her daughter found the younger victim wandering in the street barefoot and covered in blood.

"I felt sick to my stomach," she said. "You couldn't see his face, he was cut from head to toe with a gash across his head. They had slashed his arms and face and he had no trainers or socks on. His face was mashed."

Resident Jean Wright, 68, said: "My husband saw [the younger boy] walking past the outside of our house and he was covered in what my husband thought was red paint. When he went out he saw it was blood.

"We brought him in and my husband calmed him down. He had a big gash on his arm and he was covered in blood on his head. He was shaking very badly and going into shock. We managed to get his name out of him and my husband told me to call an ambulance."

Derek Wright, 70, said his son Ian saw the 11-year-old on the edge of a stream, lying face down with his arms outstretched. He was covered in dried mud and blood, he said.

Mr Wright added: "They're animals, absolute animals. How any child could do this to another child I don't know."

Councillor Georgina Mullis, who represents Edlington and Warmsworth ward, said: "Edlington is a mining community which will always be a close knit community. People do help one another... and they will be shocked that this has happened. We don't want this sort of thing happening."

The younger boy is being treated for his injuries at Doncaster Royal Infirmary.

South Yorkshire Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it had advised South Yorkshire Police to charge the boys with four counts each of attempted murder and robbery.

Chris Hartley, head of the service's Crown Court Unit, said: "We have now authorised the police to charge a boy aged 10 and a boy aged 11.

"Each boy is charged with an offence of attempted murder for each victim and each boy is also charged with an offence of robbery against each victim. This gives a total of four charges for each boy."

ARTICLE FROM BBC NEWS ENGLAND. UPDATE

Boys face attempted murders trial

Two brothers accused of attempting to murder two young boys have been committed to Crown Court. Skip related content The brothers, aged 10 and 11, appeared before Doncaster Youth Court accused of attacking and robbing a nine-year-old boy and his 11-year-old uncle in Edlington, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, on April 4.

The two brothers are also charged with two counts of attempted murder and two of robbery.

When they appeared in the dock flanked by four adults, the boys were told they each now also face two extra charges.

The brothers were arrested after a nine-year-old boy was found wandering in the former pit village covered in blood.

The youngster told police where to find his uncle, who was discovered unconscious in a nearby wooded ravine. Both the injured boys have now been released from hospital.

The brothers stood in the dock of the crowded court surrounded by two men and two women in civilian clothing.

The brothers spoke only to confirm their names, ages and that they understood what was happening.

After a 10 minute hearing Judge Jonathan Bennett committed the case to crown court.

He remanded the brothers into secure local authority accommodation and told them they will next appear on June 15 at Sheffield Crown Court. There was no application for bail.

SOURCE: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090528/tuk-boys-face-attempted-murders-trial-6323e80.html