The Sleep of Reason: The James Bulger Case (17 page)

There was also the new Downstream Monitoring equipment. A twin cassette recorder, not unlike those fixed in the interview rooms, but portable, and with an additional unit which could be placed in an adjoining room with a speaker or headphones, to enable other officers to eavesdrop on the interviews. It also meant a Pallen typist could transcribe the interviews as they went along. Merseyside had Downstream Monitoring, but it only had one set. It could only be used if the interviews were staggered, one after the other, running the machine back and forth between the two stations where the boys were being held. Also, the machine was already in use elsewhere, and they would have to wait until it became available.

Albert Kirby was keeping an eye and an ear on these discussions, and preparing his own brief for
Crimewatch.
He still wasn’t sure whether to go. He was due on the four thirty flight from Manchester. He didn’t want to be away overnight. George Bundred stepped in and said the police authority
would pick up the bill for the helicopter Mike One to meet Albert outside London after the programme and fly him home. This helped, but it didn’t remove the central dilemma.

It was Jim Sharpies who finally resolved the issue.

‘Are you happy’, he said to Albert Kirby, ‘that these are the right two boys?’

The answer had to be, and was, ‘No sir, I can’t say I’m happy it’s them.’

‘Well, go for it then.’

And Albert went, blazing down the outside lane of the M62 in a marked police car, round the M56 to the airport, where he just made the flight.

At Heathrow, he was met by the
Crimewatch
researcher, who sat with him in the back of the car, going over notes as they drove through West London to Television Centre. Albert was impressed by the meticulous attention to detail. But the travel and the tension were taking their toll. He was beginning to feel decidedly manky.

Throughout the day, OSD search teams had been back and forth from the three addresses, rummaging for anything that might be significant. They bagged and labelled numerous extra pieces of clothing, and various pairs of shoes and trainers.

At Bobby’s home they found a bamboo cane, a copper cylinder with protruding prongs, two studded leather bracelets, a belt, a Sainsbury’s carrier bag full of cassettes, and a Manchester United tracksuit top. At Jon’s father’s maisonette an officer found a child’s drawing lying in the bottom of a wardrobe. It depicted a scene in the film
Halloween
. From his mother’s home they took Jon’s
Thunderbirds
computer game and his sketch pad.

As the OSD searches were finishing, the arresting officers gathered at Marsh Lane for a last briefing before the start of the interviews. Video recording was out, and they could wait no longer for the Downstream Monitoring. In any case, it would be too cumbersome, staggering the interviews for the benefit of the extra equipment.

Jim Fitzsimmons would dearly have liked to have been one of the interviewers. All detectives think they are good at interviewing and Jim was no exception, but he knew it wasn’t his job this time. He would stay at Marsh Lane to act as the coordinator. It would take the pressure off the two teams, and he could feed information from one to the other.

Phil Roberts remained team leader for Bobby’s interviews. He would be accompanied by Bob Jacobs, and there would be two back-up officers in the station for support. Mark Dale would go in with George Scott, and they too would have a back-up team.

There was no question of telling them how to conduct the interviews. They were all trained and experienced, and they knew what was required. But the ages of the boys could not be ignored, and neither could the fact that it seemed as if the whole world was watching. To fuck up now would be catastrophic.

Interviews were about getting to the truth. Sometimes this meant putting people under pressure, pushing them that bit further. You might provoke anger or tears, if that would get an honest response. It was about judgement, and instinctively suiting the approach to the moment.

There could be none of that now. No pushing, no pressure, no ploughing on through a child’s distress. That would be wrong. It could be disastrous. The boys’ lawyers would be there; let them decide. Watch for tiredness, hunger, and keep checking with the lawyers: are they happy to carry on?

Okay, good luck, keep me informed, let’s go.

19

Roberts.
This interview is being tape recorded. I am Detective Sergeant Roberts …

Nicotine was seeping into Phil Roberta’s system through the patch on his arm. It wasn’t much nicotine. If he could bottom this lad quickly, maybe he could still hold out.

Roberts
.… the other officer present is …

Jacobs.
Detective Constable Jacobs.

Bob Jacobs was from the Serious Crime Squad. It was the first time he and Phil Roberts had interviewed together.

PACE – the Police And Criminal Evidence Act – demanded that interviews be recorded. Each interview could last no longer than three quarters of an hour, determined by the length of the one-sided, 45-minute tapes. The recorder was a twin-deck machine, requiring two tapes recording the interview simultaneously. The tapes came individually packaged, to be unwrapped in the room. At the end, one would be retained for police use, the other sealed with a wrap-around sticky label and signed by an interviewing officer and the suspect’s lawyer. A buzzer sounded when the machine began recording, and sounded again a few seconds before the tapes finished.

Roberts.
Now, what’s your full name?

Bobby.
Robert Thompson.

Roberts.
And what’s your date of birth, Robert?

Bobby.
Twenty-third, I think, of the eighth.

Roberts.
Yeah, is it August?

Bobby.
Eighty-two.

Roberts.
Say yes. You nodded your head there.

Bobby.
Yes.
(The
voice
is
slight,
timid
and
unbroken.)

Roberts.
Okay. Right, the date is the eighteenth of February, 1993, the time on my watch is now 17.57 hours. That means it’s three minutes to six, all right. Also present in this room is your mother, if you could introduce yourself …

Ann.
Ann Thompson.

Roberts
.… and your legal representative …

Lee.
Jason Lee from Paul Rooney and Company.

Lee is a smart young clerk from Rooney’s, a city firm of solicitors. He works out of the branch office on Stanley Road in Bootle, a writ’s throw from the Strand, and has been called out because he’s worked for the Thompson family before. He got out of bed to answer the phone, first thing this morning, and went down to Walton Lane. He’s playing it by ear, waiting to see what unfolds.

Roberts.
Right, this interview is being conducted in an interview room at Walton Lane Police Station.…

The interview room, just off the bridewell area at the back of the station, is barely big enough for the five people it now contains. There is one small, reinforced window. The tape recorder is fixed to the wall, with the microphone suspended from a hook just to the right. Beneath the recorder is a formica-topped table around which the group are seated. Bob Jacobs is nearest the mike, next to Phil Roberts, who sits sideways on, close up to, and facing Bobby, to establish an intimacy between them. Bobby’s feet touch the ground, but only just. Phil Roberts will notice that he seems to shuffle them back and forth when he is being evasive. Ann is next to Bobby, and then Jason Lee, leaning on the table, making notes.

Roberts.
Now, at the conclusion of this interview I will give you a notice, right, which will explain what’s going to happen to the tapes after, do you understand? Right, now I want you to listen to this. You are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to do so, right, but whatever you do say may be given in evidence – do you understand? Right, that means what you say here, you don’t have to say anything, right, but it’s entirely up to you. You say yes, don’t nod your head. Say yes.

Bobby.
Yes.

Roberts.
Do you understand?

Jacobs.
Just that you understand.…

Roberts.
Are you all right? Do you understand what I mean? Erm, and that, er, if you do say something it may go to court, may be given in evidence. Do you understand all that?

That was the caution. It has to be repeated at the start of every interview. The officers and the lawyer have to be satisfied that Bobby knows what it means.

Jacobs.
So you understand what …

Roberts.
You’re shaking your head again there, Robert.

Bobby.
Yeah.

Roberts.
What do they call you? Robert or Bobby?

Bobby.
All of them.

Jacobs.
Bobby, isn’t it?

Roberts.
All of them. Bobby’s a more friendly name, do you agree? You did it again.

Bobby.
Yeah.

Roberts.
All right, then.

Jacobs.
But, yeah, what we’ll be doing is asking you some questions, and you don’t have to answer them if you don’t want to, right. But, if you do answer them, then they can be brought to court at a later stage. Do you understand that Bobby, yes?

Roberts.
You nodded your head again.

Bobby.
Yeah.

Roberts.
Mrs Thompson, are you all right?

Ann.
I’ve got a headache.

Roberts.
Pardon?

Ann.
I’ve got a terrible headache.

Roberts.
You’ve got a terrible headache. Are you all right to, are we all right to continue with the interview? Yes? You’re nodding your head now.

Ann.
Yeah.

Roberts.
Righto, okay. Right Bobby, I came round to your house this morning, didn’t I?

Bobby.
Yeah.

Roberts.
And what did I say to you?

Bobby.
I’m arresting you.

Roberts.
Correct. What for?

Bobby.
James.

Roberts.
James, what about James?

Bobby.
That you said on suspicion of murdering him.

Jacobs.
That’s right.

Roberts.
That’s well remembered, very well remembered. That’s good. I’m going to tell you something else now, which is more or less the same. I’m also arresting you, right, for abducting James, okay?

Bobby.
What does abducting mean?

Roberts.
On suspicion of abducting, meaning taking away from.

Bobby.
I never took him.

Phil Roberts cautions Bobby for the abduction of James Bulger. He doesn’t have to say anything, but if he does say something.…

Bobby says yes, he understands this, and Roberts begins questioning him about last Friday, about how his day began. Bobby describes calling for Gummy Gee, meeting Jon on County Road, and going to the Strand. When they begin talking over the route Bobby and Jon took to the Strand there is
some confusion as the two officers fail to recognise Bobby’s references to local places.

Bobby says that, once at the Strand, he and Jon ran round, going through shops, though he can’t remember which shops they went through, and then went to the library. When the officers wonder how long this took, and whether he was hungry, Bobby remembers going to McDonalds. Asked if he ate at all that day, after breakfast, Bobby jumps forward to the evening when they ran the message for the girl in the video shop, and Jon’s mum came and battered him. That was at about six o’clock.

Roberts says he’s struggling with the time. Bobby wants to know what he means, struggling. Roberts says he’s trying to find out what time it is.

They talk about the library, and Bobby says they were in the kids’ corner. Then Roberts asks if Bobby knows about James. Bobby says he took flowers over yesterday. Roberts says did Bobby see James at the Strand. Bobby says, yeah. In the morning. On the Friday. When he and Jon were going up the escalators. He was with his mum and he was wearing a blue coat. He can’t remember the colour of James’ hair. He thinks it was black or something.

Roberts moves the time frame forward to the video shop, asking about Susan Venables and why she had gone after Bobby and Jon. There has been no change of tone, but Roberts’s heart is pumping at Bobby’s mention of seeing James and his mother. Surely, this means … no, keep cool, tunnel vision, don’t show any reaction.