James Bulger mum wants "justice"

yes chavvy little scumbags

You're completely right here. I'm not defending Jon Venables and Robert Thomspon - well, perhaps I am a bit - but they're often compared to an adult who commits the same crime, equally as culpable and equally as evil. The comparison really can't be made: they were young and they had an unfortunate upbringing. It's by no means an excuse, but it certainly counts for something.

Thompson and venables are nothing more than evil monsters. They should have been locked up and the key thrown away.

You're the sort of person who calls two child victims of abuse, "chavvy little scumbags". Nice.

Let's look at this:

chavvy: they skived school to hang around a shopping centre, sounds fairly chavvy to me.
little: they were 10, so yeah.
scumbags: I don't know about you, but to me any murderer is a scumbag.

I'm not defending them at all. I do think some understanding that they were victims too is necessary.

If you had kids, would you be comfortable knowing that those two were living anonymously nearby?

I would argue they're likely still ****ed up given their starting point and our legal system's incompetence, especially with this child porn stuff. How is aspiring for personal gain any indication that they've changed to be safe?

They were victims of abuse. They were children.

So are you agreeing with me that they were chavvy little scumbags? You didn't dispute it. And the vast majority of abused children don't go on to become murderers.

If somebody murdered my children, I guess I'd want revenge. We talk about being moral upstanding people, but where you're talking about your own kin, it is (and it really is) a totally different ball game.

Nice of you to get all sanctimonious when those poor "victims of abuse" carried out a calculated murder on an innocent little boy.

Please don't ever breed.

What I also object to is the notion that the death of a child is worse than the death of just about anyone else. The death of James Bulger is no less tragic and no more tragic than the death of the policewoman who's car was rammed in Northern Ireland yesterday. Every death is harrowing.

In fact I would say that the death of someone in a capacity where they are working protecting other people, armed forces, police, fire brigade is evokes more sorrow due to the circumstances in which they are killed. They aren't killed living their life, doing what they enjoy, but serving others. A soldier being killed in Afghanistan for me is worse than someone being killed because they got in a fight with someone down the pub. Indeed, society accepts this, which is why there are seperate offences for violence against police officers etc.

I do have kids.

If these two were living anonymously, how would I know they were close by?

They were 10 at the time. There's so much I didn't know about the world when I was 10. Asking whether they've changed or been rehabilitated is sort of redundant.

Just say it was known, a government minister had it on a piece of paper that the press managed to photograph or something.

tbh, I have no idea how I'd feel.

a death of a child feels emotionally worse (yes, I have experienced this), parents expect their kids to outlive them

For the parents I'd probably accept that. But for someone unrelated, I don't find the murder of James Bulger any more or less upsetting than the murders of PC Nicola Hughes and PC Fiona Bone. I don't think the murders of children should be put on some sort of pedestal.

There are in most cases significant aggravating factors in the murders of children and that's why the courts should in a comparable case with an adult, look more harshly on the crime. But no one is going to tell me that one loss is worse than the other, i.e. if we could chose to spare someone, it'd be the child.