The Sleep of Reason: The James Bulger Case (24 page)

They were back in there at midday on Saturday, for Bobby’s eighth interview. Bobby had an admission to make. He had touched the baby, trying to get him off the railway track. He had lifted him by the belly, with his arms around his chest, but he put him back because he was going to get full of blood. He was sure James had all his clothes on then.

Phil Roberts tells Bobby they’ve been talking to the officers interviewing Jon, and he doesn’t think Bobby’s told them everything. Bobby says he has.

They go over the way that Bobby and Jon came down from the railway line, and then they show Bobby a fluffy toy lamb, brand new, which has been found at the reservoir, and which the investigating team thinks may have been used to lure James from the Strand. Bobby says he’s never seen it before, and he doesn’t know if Jon had it. Why would we want a teddy?

Right, says Phil Roberts, we’re going to go through now, again, what happened to James on the railway. He wants to know the truth, because a little more has happened, a lot more, in fact, than Bobby has said. But I’ve told you, says Bobby. No, there’s been a little more than that. You just said there was a lot more. Right, there’s a lot more, yes.

Roberts says he doesn’t think James had all his clothes on. He did, says Bobby. He didn’t, you know. Well, why would I want to take his clothes off? That’s what I want to know, Bobby. I never even touched him. Well you did, you’ve already told us that you picked him up. I know, I never hit him. You’ve never told us any other way that you’ve touched him, or done anything. Because youse stopped the interview.

They go over what Bobby had said in the previous interviews. Bobby picks up Bob Jacobs for mentioning Jonathan. His name’s Jon. It was after Jon had finished hitting James that he threw a battery at him. It was also after Bobby had put his ear to James’s chest, to see if he was still breathing.
The battery hit James in the face. Why did he do that? I don’t know, ask him. Well? I can’t read his mind.

Jacobs says he doesn’t believe Bobby had been standing idly by, and Bobby says he was trying to pull Jon back. Jacobs doesn’t believe that. Bobby says that’s what you don’t believe.

They tell Bobby that Jon has admitted throwing stones and things like that, but is also blaming Bobby for a lot of things. They want to know the truth, especially to do with clothes. Bobby doesn’t even know what they’re talking about.

Again, they go over the sequence of events. Bobby says that after Jon had thrown the paint over James, Bobby told Jon to throw the paint away. He asked Jon why he’d thrown the paint. Jon said because he felt like it. Bobby told Jon he was going, ’cos he kept on hitting him.

The first thing Jon did was throw a brick in James’s face while he was sitting on the wall. James fell on the floor, on his back, and Jon threw a brick on his belly, then he picked up the metal bar and hit him over the head. James had a big cut on his forehead. Jon had thrown the bar at him after James got up again. Bobby demonstrates Jon’s throw, making an exclamation of Jon’s effort, pffff. He doesn’t mean Jon brought the bar right back to throw it, he’s just showing he threw it at him. James fell down again, facing up, and then he wouldn’t move. Bobby was seeing if he was breathing, and told Jon he wasn’t breathing, and then Jon started hitting him with a twig, which was about as thick as a centimetre on one of the little school rulers. He hit him about three times in the face, on the eyes,
Bobby thinks, then threw the twig into the nettles. Then Jon threw the batteries at James’s face. He threw one, and then threw the other ones on the floor. Bobby asked Jon why he did it, but Jon just ignored him. He had a smirk on his mouth, like the way he was in the car yesterday. Bobby was crying, trying to pull him back. Then, when Bobby tried to pick James up, Jon said what are you doing, and Bobby said, picking him up. He was doing that so he wouldn’t get chopped in half, to put him on the side, at least. He put him down because he didn’t want to get full of blood. He doesn’t like blood. It stains, and his mother would have to pay. So he put James back down. He wasn’t going to put James somewhere else, because blood was already there, and then they’d think he and Jon had dropped him all over the place. That they’d killed him and then put him in one place and then put him in another and put him in another.

Can we put that heater, that fan on? Can’t you open the door? No, we can’t do that, son.

Bobby never touched James, except for getting him under the fence, seeing if he was breathing and trying to pick him up. Roberts says he’s put all the blame on Jon. He doesn’t believe Bobby. Bobby says you don’t know for cer … exact. He knows he’s never hit him, so he’s got nothing to bother about.

The officers press Bobby, who fences, and finally starts to cry. Is that what you’re trying to say, I’m telling lies and Jon’s telling … swearing on the Holy Bible that he’s telling the truth. Well you can go and ask our teacher who’s the worst out of me and Jon and she’ll tell you Jon.

Roberts says, well, you tell me, you tell. Bobby, you tell me everything that went on, because I’d rather … I told you about eighteen times, says Bobby. He doesn’t know anything about James’s clothing being removed, and he doesn’t know anything about asking James to look into the canal. People can whisper, he says. Jon and youse whisper, you know, everybody whispers. Why would he want to push James into the canal? Why would I want to kill him, when I’ve got a baby of me own? If I wanted to kill a baby, I’d kill, I’d kill me own, wouldn’t I?

Yesterday, says Jacobs, you said your own baby’s family, didn’t you? What do you mean? Well, you said it, when we were talking to you … I know he’s me family, I’m not stupid. I don’t even know what you’re going on about.

Roberts says that when James was found his bottom clothing had been removed. Can Bobby tell them why that is? No. Did Bobby start playing with him? With who? With James’s bottom. No. Are you sure, now? Yeah, I’m not a pervert, you know. Bobby begins crying. Well, how would you like me calling you a pervert?

The buzzer goes, and Bobby says he’s roasting. He goes to the detention room, and sees his mother. ‘He said I’m a pervert, they said I’ve played with his willy.’

*

Jon’s next interview, his seventh, began shortly after Bobby’s. Jon asked if this was the last one. Mark Dale said if he told them absolutely everything they needed to know, it would be.

Jon said he and Robert had not tried to take any other child that day, other than the little boy that the mummy got back. He had never been to the Strand with Robert before, when he had tried to do that. Robert had asked Jon to go the Strand before, but had never mentioned taking little children, there or anywhere else.

The officers go over the route that was taken from the Strand to Walton, and Jon says that they got onto the railway by the wall at the end of the entry opposite the police station. There was a gap there, that you could climb through. They pulled James through the gap, and Bobby, on his knees, pulled James up the slope.

Now, tell me what you do, says Dale, just picture it all in your mind now, yeah. Like you’re watching a film, yeah, and you just tell me, in this film in
your head, what’s happening, because it’s easier if you do that, than me keep asking you questions.

Robert opened the paint tin and threw it in James’s face, when they were in the middle of the bridge, and then threw the stick he had used to open the tin down between a gap into the road. The paint went into James’s left eye, and he cried. He put his hand to his face, trying to wipe the paint off. They were walking then, and Robert said is your head hurting, we’ll get a plaster on, and he lifted this brick up, a house brick, and threw it in his face. His face or his head? His head, Jon thinks. James cried and screamed, fell over on his bum, and he got straight back up again. Bobby said to Jon, pick up a brick and throw it, but Jon just threw it on the floor. It was a half brick, and he missed on purpose. Bobby picked the same brick up and threw it again. Jon was trying to stop him doing it. He pulled Robert’s coat for a bit. This second throw hit James in the face and made his nose bleed. Jon doesn’t know what else happened. Jon picked up little stones, ’cos he wouldn’t throw a brick on him. James just kept on getting back up again. He wouldn’t stay down. Robert was saying stay down, you stupid divvy and all that. Jon doesn’t know why Robert wanted James to stay down. He wanted him dead, probably. Robert took James to the other side ’cos there was loads of bricks there and he kept on, he kept on picking them up and throwing them. Jon was holding Robert back, and Jon took some bricks but missed by a, by a mistake. He means, not by mistake but deliberately ’cos he only picked little stones up, the white ones on the track, and threw them at his arms. Jon doesn’t remember what else Robert was shouting. It was last week, he can’t remember anything. James was still crying. Jon was dragging Robert off, going leave him alone, you’ve done enough. Robert threw about ten bricks, Jon only threw six, or five, but he deliberately missed James and hit him once on the arm ’cos he never meant to hit him on the arm. They were house bricks that Jon threw. He hit James twice on the arm, because he wanted to get the bricks at the side of him. Robert said what are you doing, can’t you aim properly. Jon said I see double vision, how am I, how am I supposed to aim properly. He doesn’t think Robert picked up anything else. Oh, yeah, he picked up this steel bar and hit him once. The bar was bigger than a ruler at school. It was made of steel. He knows that because it was heavy. Robert said it was heavy ’cos Jon had picked it up too and he threw it down dead quick ’cos it was too heavy for him. Jon picked it up because Robert said just feel the weight of that. The bar hit James on the head at the side, and Jon thinks he was knocked out then. Then they threw a few bricks at him, and then they ran away. James was making spluttering noises then, lying on the rail, on his tummy. Jon doesn’t know why they ran away. He just said to Robert, don’t you think we’ve done enough now?

Dale asks Jon if he was angry with James when he pulled the hood from James’s anorak. No, says Jon, I didn’t really want to hurt him, I didn’t want
to hurt him or nothing ’cos I didn’t want to hurt him with strong things, only like light things ’cos, ’cos I deliberately missed him with the bricks, but not with the stones. So you only wanted to hurt him a little bit? There is a pause. Answer the question, says Neil. Dale says why did you want to hurt him a little bit? I mean, I didn’t want to hurt him really. Robert probably, I thought Robert, Robert was probably doing it for fun or something, ’cos he was laughing his head off and he grinned at me when I was getting in the car, do you know, when we went to the court. In an evil way.

Jon says he doesn’t remember if James was hit with anything else. He did not steal anything in Tandys, and he doesn’t think Robert stole anything. Robert pulled James’s pants off, and his undies. Jon pulled his shoes off. He doesn’t know why. It was last week. He keeps on forgetting.

Just remember, says Dale, I said like a film. Imagine you’re watching a film, just like that. Try that and tell us what’s going on. I can’t see anything, says Jon. Just try and imagine why, what made you pull his shoes off. I don’t know, just mad, I went, I just went like that. I just went like that. Just something to do. Were you angry? Dale asks. Because you sort of clenched your fist then. No, I wasn’t angry, I was upset.

Robert threw the underpants behind him, then picked them up again and put them on James’s face, where there was all blood on. This was after the iron bar had been thrown. Jon wasn’t looking then, he was crying, he was too upset.

Jon begins crying. I don’t want any more now dad, he’s asking me too hard questions. Jon doesn’t know what else happened to James. Robert done all of it mainly.

*

When Bobby’s ninth interview began, just before two o’clock on Saturday afternoon, he had decided, as was his right, not to answer any questions. Jason Lee had retired for a rest, and the solicitor from Paul Rooney’s, Dominic Lloyd, had taken over.

Bobby didn’t want to say his name. Lloyd told him it was all right to say his name. Bob Jacobs asks him if he had spoken to another boy, earlier on the Friday. Yeah, well just listen, says Bobby, breaking his vow of silence, I was told, right, in the paper that the two youths that took James were supposed to have done an old granny over four hours later. The officers say they don’t know anything about that, and that isn’t what they were talking to him about.

Jacobs tries to steer Bobby into speaking about the abduction of Mrs Power’s son. He mentions various shops in the Strand – Mothercare, TJ Hughes – and Bobby says he’s heard of them. Jacobs goes through the
statement from Mrs Power, referring to the two boys at the purse counter in TJ Hughes. Bobby says he doesn’t even know what they’re talking about. He’s not saying nothing. He then picks Jacobs up over a detail. He says Jacobs has changed the story. Jacobs says he hopes Bobby’s not going to pick him up every time he changes stories, because Bobby changes stories as well, doesn’t he?

Jacobs ploughs on, through the description of events given by Mrs Power. Bobby quibbles here and there, and finally, when Jacobs gets to the part where a boy has waved Mrs Power’s son towards him, Bobby says Jon could have been making a wave and how was he supposed to hear him say, doing that?

All they want to know, says Roberts, is what happened. Bobby says he never seen Jon do it, but he might’ve sneaky done it. Bobby wasn’t in TJ Hughes, and Jon was with him.

Jacobs then starts to go through the description of the two boys supplied by the mother. A boy with a thin face wearing blue jeans and dark training shoes. Blue jeans? Bobby queries. Well it couldn’t’ve been us, we were in school uniform. The other boy is said to be of stocky build. What’s stocky? Bobby queries. It means fattish, says Phil Roberts. Well, it couldn’t’ve been me ’cos I don’t eat. Everybody thinks I’m skinny. The boy with a stocky build is also said to have a fat face with a full fringe. I haven’t got fat, says Bobby, it couldn’t’ve been me. I haven’t got a full fringe. Where’s my fringe? And I don’t wear jeans.