James Bulger's mother has called for the Children's Commissioner in Britain to be sacked for ‘twisted and insensitive’ comments about the murder of her two-year-old son.
Denise Fergus spoke out after Dr Maggie Atkinson said his killers should never have been prosecuted because they were too young to understand the full consequences of their actions.
The British Ministry of Justice yesterday ruled out Dr Atkinson's proposal to increase the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 years of age, saying children aged ten and over did know the difference between ‘bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing’.
Dr Atkinson described the killing as ‘exceptionally unpleasant’ but said it was wrong that Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who were ten in 1993 when they were charged with the boy's murder, were tried in an adult court.
Ms Fergus told reporters: ‘This woman owes James and me an apology for her twisted and insensitive comments. Then she should resign or be sacked.
‘To say that his killers should not have been tried in an adult court is stupid. They committed an adult crime - a cold-blooded murder that was planned and premeditated and they were tried accordingly.’
She added: ‘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.’
Dr Atkinson said children under the age of 12 should not be prosecuted for any crime.
But the Ministry of Justice responded by saying: ‘We believe that children aged 10 and over can differentiate between bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing.
‘We do not intend to raise the age of criminal responsibility.
