murder of James Bulger
1993 CE.
Shown on the map at 53.443°, -2.960°.
On 12 February 1993 in Merseyside, England, two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, abducted, tortured, and murdered a two-year-old boy, James Patrick Bulger (16 March 1990 – 12 February 1993). Thompson and Venables led Bulger away from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, where Bulger was visiting shops with his mother. His mutilated body was found on a railway line 2+1⁄2 miles (4 kilometres) away in Walton, Liverpool, two days later. Thompson and Venables were found guilty of abduction and murder on 24 November, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern British history. They were sentenced to indefinite detention at Her Majesty's pleasure, and remained in custody until a Parole Board decision in June 2001 recommended their release on a life licence at age 18. Venables was sent to prison in 2010 for possessing child pornography images on his computer, was released on parole again in 2013, before being returned to prison in November 2017 for the same offence. His 2023 appeals for parole were rejected. The case has prompted widespread debate about how to handle young offenders when they are sentenced or released from custody.
Text from the Wikipedia article Murder of James Bulger, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.