Robert Thompson

[twiglet4frog]

It was in the People paper (although probably made most of it up) that RobertThompson that tortured and murdered Jamie Bulger (with an acomplice Venebles) was now dating a girlfriend and was keeping his secret hidden.

Should the Police or Courts be allowed to intervene and force him to reveal his past to anyone he is romantically involved with?

I am not going along the chain of thought of "he should never be allowed to live a normal life for what he did" arguements but more a case of he was convicted of killing and torturing a young child with serious malice and the girlfriend he is with doesnt know about this and wants to marry and have children with him. Should she be allowed to know about him before she has a child by him and hands the young child into his arms, or leaves him to babysit it? Or does he still have the right to keeping his identity safe now matter what the circumstance as the courts and governemnt have said?

Do we do enough to safeguard and protect the innocent or do we allow the rights of terrible criminals to get in the way?

[lizzierose]

how an earth do you tell someone something like that. Its hardly something you can just slip into the conversation? If it gets serious I hope he can find it in himself to tell her.

anyone thought from the other perspective what happened if you knew them when they did this and 40 years later when your married with kids whatever, these guys are STILL in jail for something they did before they even had a chance to grow up.

the entirety of the rest of their childhood and development, some of their most formative years,was spent in detention closely monitored. If they are believed to be reformed, I think they should have a second chance. I know that Jamie Bulger doesn't or his family before anyone posts that. but as gandhi said, an eye for an eye and the whole world would be blind.

its horrific and horrible what happened, but deciding to lock up for life and sterilise someone so young is pretty horrific too. 

[El D]

If we believe the nature of a crime determines the nature of a personality then we have no chance to evolve. A speeder is always a speeder so take away his license, a thief is always a thief so don't let him leave the house, a murderer is always a threat so don't let him out of prison etc etc.

I thoroughly applaud Lillabet's posts - again you will note that those who advocate the 'hard' line have nothing but emotional evocation to draw upon. If we can never change from our 'evil' (cough) actions then we are the sum of those actions alone, no balance is achieved. These people should not be a figurehead for hatred, but for hope in the fact that even people who committ such heinous crimes can be brought back into society. It's hard, it's not popular, it's not what you want, but it is the only way forward.

[Binky]

With regard to the particular issue of whether Robert Thompson's girlfriend should be told his history, I would imagine she probably knows!  He would have to be very creative to make up the story of the whole of his teenage years.  Also, from what other newspapers have said, he hasn't had plastic surgery and may well have a familiar look.  He is also likely to have told her rather than wait for her to find out via the press. 

[deepestsmile]

I think whoever them evil ******* get involved with should be told what they have done so she can then decide if she wants kiddies with them? i very much doubt she would but if she did then fair play 2 the silly cow.

what happened 2 james was very disturbing, having 2 kiddies myself i would die if anything happened to mine but it made me angry when i read all the ppl that had seen them but more so the 1's who saw them hurting him & did nothing, HOW COULD U? if u had, that poor boy would still be alive & its just as much ur fault as it is the KILLERS

now as 4 them being released, U ****** IDIOT. im not saying they will do this again, they may, they may not but is that risk really worth taking? u take a life pal u deserve the same treatment, myself personally i would of tied them 2 the train tracks & let them await their fate of just scare the ****** **** out of them, justice still hasn't been done 4 james & i hope them 2 ***** get killed.