Remembering James Bulger

CCTV footage of James’s abduction

Crime that shocked the world

The abduction and murder of two-year-old James Bulger is one of Merseyside’s most shocking crimes. Twenty-eight years on, Inspector Ray Simpson reveals what it was like to deal with the demand from the press in such a tragic case

By BETH HARWOOD

James Patrick Bulger was shopping with his mother in Bootle Strand Shopping Centre in February 1993 when he was lured away by 10-year-old boys Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. His body was later found on a nearby railway line and nine months later, Thompson and Venables were charged with murder and sentenced to a minimum of eight years in a juvenile detention centre, making them the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century.

In a recent talk to students at Liverpool John Moores University, Inspector Ray Simpson, in charge of the Merseyside police press office at the time of the Bulger case, spoke about how he dealt with the ever-growing interest from the press about the story that still makes headlines almost three decades later.

Insp. Simpson spoke about how he used to listen to the radio on his way into work, so he would know what to expect for the day ahead.

When the Bulger case was first reported, he described how it felt when he walked into the press office on the day the body was found.

He said: “I remember hearing Pete Price, a local presenter, quite famous, and he was just crying, sobbing into the mic and he was saying ‘That poor baby, that poor baby’, and I had no idea what he was talking about.

“When I went into the press office it was absolutely bedlam. Phones were ringing off the hook. Everybody was there, and all everybody was doing was answering phones, non-stop.”

Despite only having time to learn the basics of the case, Insp. Simpson spoke about how he was asked to go to the railway line, which by this point was the murder scene.

He said numerous journalists were already there and he broke one of his own rules - “Don’t give an interview if you don’t have the full facts” - by doing TV and radio interviews and speaking to reporters.

He added: “It’s a case of really the pressure that the press put on you to talk to them. And once you start talking, then they start asking other questions, and before you know where you are, you’re doing an interview.”

A phrase that was often used by those in the police press office, including Insp. Simpson, was “the animal must be fed”.

This phrase describes how if they didn’t give any information to the media then they often made things up or they would contact potential witnesses for information regarding the case.

Insp. Simpson said this became a problem during the investigation, saying that “a lot of people in Liverpool will tell the press but they won’t tell the police”, and how some of the press managed to get hold of contact details for these witnesses and rang them directly.

These people often became distraught.

“They’d seen James on the route and didn’t do anything about it or were unable to do anything about it.

“We then had to write to every witness to say to them ‘Look, if the press contact you, can you please let us know?’

“Because once they start talking outside of the statement that they’ve made, that could impact at a later date. If it ends up in the press and it’s not in the statement, that’s when you can get major problems.”

Insp. Simpson explained how the international media were just as interested in the Bulger case as national and local media.

When asked if he would do anything differently if given the opportunity, he said quite simply that he would.

“I would’ve suspended the right of anybody else other than the press office to speak in relation to the case. I wouldn’t have bothered as much with the foreign journalists that we did because we really didn’t need to.”

Saying that press queries came from all over the world, Insp. Simpson mentioned that he knew the story had reached as far as Australia because “My mother’s brother rang and said I’d been on the telly! It really did make all over the world.”