James Bulger’s mother says she still blames herself for her son’s death

The mother of James Bulger has said that she still blames herself for her son's death.

The two-year-old was abducted from a shopping centre in Liverpool by 10-year-olds Jon Venables and Robert Thompson in 1993. The pair were imprisoned for life for torturing and killing Bulger. They both served eight years in prison before they were released in 2001 and given new identities. Denise Fergus, Bulger's mother, has recently said that she still blames herself for her son's death. In the Mail on Sunday, she wrote: "If I'd turned right instead of left, I'd have saved his life."

"People often ask me if I blame myself for what happened that day - for taking my eyes off him for that split second, for letting go of his hand as I looked for my purse, for not seeing what the CCTV footage later showed: Jon Venables and Robert Thompson beckoning James away from my side and out of the shop at 3.39pm. "The answer is: of course I do. "There aren’t the words to describe how I still feel now, every day. I was the one who let go of his hand, I was the one there meant to protect him."

Fergus also said that February 12, 1993 was the day that she "... stopped sleeping and I haven’t had a full night’s rest since." Since his release in 2001, Venables has been charged with the possession of indecent child images twice. He pleaded guilty to his first child pornography possession charge in 2010. Venables received parole in 2013 and was given another new identity. Last week, he was charged with the possession of indecent child images for the second time.