Don't treat children like Bulger killers as criminals, says 'tsar'

Published on Monday 15 March 2010 22:10

CALLS for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 12 – an issue highlighted by the recent debate over the James Bulger case – have been supported by Scotland's Children's Commissioner.

Tam Baillie says Scotland should raise the current age of culpability from eight to 12, as proposed in the Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill.

The legal limit was the subject of heated debate at the weekend when Mr Baillie's English counterpart, Dr Maggie Atkinson, suggested Jon Venables and Robert Thompson should not have stood trial for Jamie Bulger's murder.

The pair were ten when they abducted, tortured and murdered the two-year-old in 1993.

The Scottish Government's proposal to raise the age of culpability to 12 would bring Scots law on the matter into line with most of Europe.

Children's tsar Mr Baillie said: "We share the aim to raise the age of criminal responsibility. This has been a long-standing issue in Scotland where we have one of the lowest in Europe, at eight.

"It is widely recognised that we need to address this and I therefore welcome the proposal from the Scottish Government in the Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill.

"The Scottish Law Commission, the Lord Advocate, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Scottish Police Federation and children's charities backed that move, because it upholds the principles behind Scotland's much-admired children's hearing system.

"In the hearings system, we already have a very robust system for dealing with children who commit offences, including the most serious."

UK Schools Secretary Ed Balls has backed Dr Atkinson and defended Venables and Thompson, saying they were not "intrinsically evil", and deserved a second chance in life.

He said: "I think what they did to James Bulger was evil… but I'm not willing to say the children were intrinsically evil and nothing could ever be done to give them a second chance.

"I think it's a right and fair and moral thing to always want to give people a second chance."

However, Mr Balls described Dr Atkinson's comments as "ill-advised" – but said she would not be sacked or asked to apologise.

James's mother, Denise Fergus, was particularly upset by the way Dr Atkinson had described her son's death.

Dr Atkinson said last week: "What they did was exceptionally unpleasant and the fact that a little boy ended up dead is not something the nation can easily forget. But they shouldn't have been tried in an adult court because they were still children."

Ms Fergus called those comments "twisted and insensitive" and demanded Dr Atkinson resign or be sacked.

Speaking at the weekend, she said: "It is a shock to people like Dr Atkinson that children can be truly evil by ten.

"But it is a fact and I fear there will be more of them, and we need laws to be tightened up so we can deal with them."

Yesterday, a spokesman for Ms Fergus said she did not want to comment further.

Venables, now 27, was returned to prison at the end of last month after breaching the terms of his release, reportedly for offences involving images depicting child sex abuse.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw has refused to say why he was returned to custody, but he did meet Ms Fergus last Thursday to discuss the case.

He has also defended giving Venables and Thompson new identities when they were released from custody in 2001 after serving eight years for murder, saying it prevented "lynch mob" attacks.