The Sleep of Reason: The James Bulger Case

by David James Smith

  ■

  In the Lower Lane interview room, Michelle Bennett and Dave Tanner told Susan that, after listening to Jon’s last interview they both felt that he wanted to talk about the incident, but was inhibited by the way she consoled him. He didn’t want to upset her. Susan realised that because she didn’t think Jon was involved, she might have been making it more difficult for him to talk.

  The officers said she would have to be strong, and reassure Jon that his parents loved him and that he could say anything to them. If Jon did know anything about the killing of James Bulger he might be able to talk if he felt safe and secure that his parents would always love him.

  Susan spoke to Neil for a while and, at three o’clock, they went to see Jon in the detention room. As they went in, they called Dave Tanner to join them, and he stood by the door.

  Jon’s mother and father sat either side of him on the bench. They put their arms around him, and said they would always be there for him. They loved him very much, and wanted him to tell the truth, no matter what it was. They weren’t going to tell him off. They would understand.

  Jon became upset and was crying. He climbed into his mother’s lap, and she cradled him like a baby, hugging him close. Through his tears he said that he wanted to tell. ‘I did kill him,’ Jon said.

  They were all very distressed. After a while Jon turned to Dave Tanner. 'What about his mum, will you tell her I’m sorry?’

  Jon said he had been going to give himself up and, as Mark Dale came in, he added, ‘Can I tell you about Robert trying to get another lad away?’

  The officers waited a while before returning to the interviews. Susan said she could not go back in, and Neil said he would replace her. Dave Tanner called Jim Fitzsimmons at Marsh Lane to tell him what had happened.

  Jim put the phone down and turned to Geoff MacDonald across the desk. 'He’s coughed it. Yeah. He’s having it.’ They went up the corridor to tell Albert Kirby. Jon’s admission was the breakthrough they had been waiting for. No cough, no job.

  Later, Jim spoke to Michelle Bennett. If Susan was not going to be in on the interviews, he did not want an all male environment. Now he wanted Michelle to go in. She said that, from listening, Mark Dale and George Scott had built up a good relationship with Jon, and it would be wrong to break the bond. But Jim is sure he’s right. He doesn’t want all men. He just doesn’t want it, but they’re telling him it would be wrong to break up the partnership. Okay, he says, leave it as it is. Stick with it. Decisive bastard aren’t I, thinks Jim.

  Jon’s sixth interview begins at four o’clock, with Mark Dale saying that he knows it took a lot of doing, Jon making his admission, and he knows Jon was upset, as they all were. He asks Jon to tell them exactly what he did that day, from the beginning.

  Jon describes going to the Strand with Robert, and says that Robert got three tins of paint from Toymaster, by putting them under his sleeve. Then this other kid came up, and Robert says let’s get this kid lost. They walked him through TJ Hughes, Robert going, come on mate, and then his mum came up behind them and got him. Why did Robert want the little boy to follow him? I know, he said let’s get him lost outside so when he goes into the road he’ll get knocked over. What did Jon say to that? I said it’s a very bad thing to do, isn’t it.

  They found James outside the butchers. They both saw him, and it was Jon’s idea to walk towards him, but it was Robert’s idea to kill him. Jon said to Robert is that boy lost or something? Robert walked up to him, and they were walking round, and Jon took his hand. They were looking for his mum for a bit, then they got fed up and went outside to the canal. The boy couldn’t talk at all, he was just going I want my mummy, all the time.

  Robert said, lets throw him in the water. Jon said if you wanna, like. He was only going to throw him in the shallow thingy. Robert was persuading him saying kneel down and let’s look at the water and all that, but he wouldn’t. Robert picked him up and threw him on the floor, and that’s where he got the bump on his head.

  Neil goes to take a sip of the drink Jon has with him in the interview. That’s mine, says Jon. Well, let your dad have a drink, says Dale, I think he might just need one.

  Jon describes how Robert picked James up, under his arms, lifted him up to about head or chest height, ’cos he was heavy, Robert said, and slammed him down on the floor. He landed on his head. Was he crying then? Yeah. I should imagine he would be.

  They ran away from him, but came back, and he was already walking up. Jon doesn’t know why they went back. Just to walk around with him.

  Jon goes through the walk they took, remembering the three girls laughing, to the reservoir where the woman spotted them. James was all right then. They were taking him to Walton Village. Why? I don’t know, we didn’t know what to do until we were walking through, 1 took his hood off and threw it up in the tree. Hang on. Jon’s jumping the gun a bit there.

  They cut through from Bedford Road to County Road, and along Church Road West. They didn’t talk to anyone by the Breeze Hill flyover. They didn’t go that way. They climbed on a wall by the entry to get on to the railway.

  Jon’s getting upset now. He can’t tell them anything else. Why? ’Cos that’s the worst bit. Okay, right, now let me tell you, I know that’s the worst bit but you know what you did and you know if you try hard you’ll be able to tell us. What you need is to have a little rest, think about it, and just tell us what happened.

  Jon. We took him on the railway and started throwing bricks at him.

  Dale. Who did?

  Jon. Robert, he just said, he said, just stand there and we’ll get you a plaster or something.

  Dale. Why did he throw bricks at him?

  Jon. I don’t know.

  Dale. What else did he do, apart from throwing bricks?

  Jon. Threw the big pole at him.

  Lee. What’s that?

  Dale. Threw a big pole at him, is that what you said?

  Jon. That knocked him out.

  Dale. What was the pole made of?

  Jon. Steel.

  Dale. Like a bar?

  Jon. Yeah, off the track

  Dale. Where did the stick, where did the stones and bar hit him?

  Jon. In the head.

  Dale. And you say the bar knocked him out?

  Jon. Yeah, on to the railway track.

  Dale. And then, and what happened then?

  Jon. He was just lying there.

  Dale. Okay, keep going.

  That’s what happened. We just ran to Walton Village into the video shop and she, then she told us I’ll give you a pound if you do this and we did and that’s when my mum caught me and we went to the police station. I went home then.

  When they left him, James was lying on the track, bleeding all over, from his face.

  Is it finished now? ’Cos I can’t speak anymore. Do you want a little break, do you want to have a little drink? No, I’ve said all that’s, I’ve said it now. Okay, if you don’t want to say any more. No, I don’t. No. You don’t have to.

  Scott says can he just ask something about the paint. Jon says the second one went on him and the third one on the train track. And all those things that happened to James, they were all done by Robert? Some from me. Tell me what you did? Just threw two bricks at him, that’s all I done ’cos I wouldn’t throw anything big at him. How big were the bricks you threw? Only teeny, little stones. Where did they hit him? On the arms, I wouldn’t hit him in the head.

  The stones that Robert threw were like a building brick Jon didn’t want to throw anything at him. Why did he throw those stones at James? I only threw three or five, they were only dead little ones though, the white ones. He doesn’t know what harm they did and he doesn’t think he did anything else.

  Jon thinks it was quite a long time after the stones that James was hit with the iron bar. He thinks it was only one hit. Jon was saying stop it, stop it, like that. He said, lets go now.

  Dale. I shouldn’t really have to ask you this, but wh
at do you think of those things?

  Jon. They’re terrible. I was thinking about it, all the time.

  Lawrence Lee says as soon as you want this stopping, Neil, you say so. Okay, terminate it, says Neil.

  Later that evening, the two boys had to make their first appearance in court, so that the police could request a further detention. They were taken to South Sefton Magistrates Court in Bootle, just around the corner from the Strand. Albert Kirby made the application, which was granted. Lawrence Lee stood to thank the police for their delicate handling of the case.

  Seeing the boys for the first time, Albert Kirby and Jim Fitzsimmons were astounded by their size. They had been told the boys were short, of course, but had not expected them to be this small. The two officers watched the two children and wondered.

  In the court Bobby and Jon did not once look at each other. Afterwards, they were led to the secure car park at the back of the court to be driven to their respective police stations. Jon was already inside his unmarked car, and Bobby was just walking past. They turned and caught each other’s eye. They both smirked. A look which some of the officers who saw it interpreted as an evil smile.

  22

  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, pffiff. 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 for cer… 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, wh
en 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 its 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?