Text/Schrödinger's Monkey
In the public perception, children should always be innocent. However, in the United Kingdom, there are two boys under 10 years old, but they broke through the public's cognitive downline, just because of "fun", they brutally killed another boy who was only 2 years old, what is the reason that these two children have become murderous demons?
(Two child murderers, left: Jon, right: Robert)
1. Disappearing 2-year-old children
One day on 12 February 1993 in Liverpool, England.
Ms. Dennis Barger, as usual, took her 2-year-old son, James Barger, to the mall for shopping.
At around 3:40 p.m., mrs. Dennis, who was busy checking out, made the wrong decision to have her son, James Jr., wait for her at the door of the nearby butcher shop — and unexpectedly, it became a farewell for her and her son.
After the checkout, Ms. Dennis found that her son had disappeared from her sight, and she searched the entire shopping mall in a hurry, but still did not see any trace of her son, so she could only call the police for help.
According to surveillance, James Jr. was led by another boy who looked to be about 10 years old, and in front of this boy, there was another boy of about the same age who was leading the way - this seemed to passers-by like an older brother with a younger brother, which would not arouse any suspicion.
When she first saw this surveillance, Ms. Dennis was still a little relieved, thinking that the two children had taken their sons away, it seemed that they were going to play together, and their sons would not be too dangerous - but she obviously underestimated the dangers of human nature, and the two and a half children in front of her had already become demons.
Second, become a "toy" child
Time to go back to before James Jr. just disappeared. While Ms. Dennis was shopping with her son, at the other end of the mall, robert and Jon, two boys, also only 10 years old, were playing and playing, and they had stolen candy, toys, batteries and paint.
When he was bored, one of them suggested, "Why don't you find a kid to play with?" ”
The two hit it off and started looking for the target. First, the two set their sights on another young child, but were immediately stopped by the young child's mother. The stunned two began to look for a new target again—this time, taking advantage of The gap between Ms. Dennis's checkout, the two sneaked up and took little James away.
(Stills of the short film "Detention" adapted from this case)
Little James, who didn't understand, didn't know at first, until he followed the two out of the mall and found that they were going to take themselves to a secluded place, and realized that something was wrong, so he cried. Seeing this, Robert and Jon began punching and kicking James Jr. And the passers-by along the way, did not have any doubts about this, most of them thought they were a family, the brother and the younger brother, and occasionally there were doubts, and They were also prevaricated by Robert and Jon for taking the lost James to the police station - after all, passers-by would not expect that the two and a half children in front of them would be perverted criminals who lied and talked.
3. Brutal torture
After avoiding passers-by, Robert and Jon also took James Jr. farther and farther away until they came to a railroad track near the cemetery and an abandoned train station. It was inaccessible and no passers-by for half a day, so the two could safely carry out their own criminal plans.
"Just play with him as a toy, play badly, and then push him to the road and crash him with a car, and make it an accident!"
(Movie Stills)
The two then began to brutally torture James Jr.: first smearing paint on him, then punching and kicking, and then slamming James Jr. on the head with a splint at the orbital joint. Subsequently, the two ripped off little James's clothes, sexually assaulted him, and stuffed the battery into his rectum. After James Jr. was tortured to death, the two buried his head in the rubble in the middle of the track, trying to disguise himself as being crushed to death by a train.
After all this heinous malignancy, the two fled the crime scene.
The trial of the smallest murderer in British history
After the incident, the police launched a search for James Jr. throughout the city. It wasn't until Two days later, on Feb. 14, that James Jr.'s body was found. At this time, his body had been crushed into two pieces by the train, and there were more than 40 injuries to his whole body, more than a dozen bone fractures in his skull, and obvious damage to his genitals, and it was obvious that he had suffered extremely serious abuse before being crushed by the train.
On February 18, with the help of police investigations and many witnesses, the two criminals were finally arrested.
In order to prevent the two wretched children from confessing, the police deliberately interrogated the two separately, and Robert and Jon were also cunning, crying and making trouble at the police to try to win sympathy, and tried to throw pots at each other.
But how can the two pretend, after all, they are only 10-year-old children, under repeated interrogation by the police, Jon first collapsed his psychological defenses, crying and confessing to his mother the fact that he killed little James.
(Little James Parents)
But just two years later, the sentences were commuted to eight years and released on early parole in 2001. Some angry people also issued death threats against the two, and the relevant departments could only "protect" the two and provide them with new identities and residences. And this so-called "protection" cost 40 million yuan before and after.
After being released from prison, Robert appeared to be more honest, did not commit crimes again and was caught, and returned to the life of an ordinary person.
But Jon is still hard to change, and has been arrested several times for fighting, drug possession, and watching and collecting child pornography.
In 2018, Jon was arrested again on suspicion of child molestation and sentenced to 40 months in prison.
This time, the father of the victim James Jr. stepped forward and strongly requested the court not to let Jon be released on parole on the grounds that Jon was an extremely dangerous criminal. The court eventually granted Jon's decision not to parole.
This also gave little James's father a final sense of relief after many years of his son's death.
"I'm sure that as soon as he is released, more children will be victimized, and maybe now the parole committee will see through his true face!"
Fifth, the cruel original family gives birth to demonic children
Why do two and a half children become demons that kill young children? Obviously, this is inseparable from their nightmarish original family environment.
The first thing to say is Robert, who was born into a violent perverted family. His father was an alcoholic with violent tendencies, who was violent to his mother at every turn, and ran away from his wife and son when Robert was very young. Robert's mother also suffered from alcoholism and lacked discipline for her children. Robert had 5 older brothers, almost all of whom were scum, stealing, setting fires, and being sent to child protection centers.
The brothers' mode of getting along is based on the law of the jungle, the older bully is the management, and Robert is often beaten by his brother, locking him in a pigeon cage when he goes out to play, and even a perverted brother once sexually assaulted Robert.
Robert, who grew up in this environment, also developed a lonely and violent personality, and while being silent at school, he liked to bully children who were weaker than himself.
Another criminal, Jon, also grew up in an unhealthy family environment, his family has a history of depression, and his father has taken him to watch violent murder movies since he was a child, which has made Jon develop a grumpy and irritable personality. At school, Jon often made strange noises when he lost control of his emotions.
After being forced to transfer schools because of a fight, Jon arrives at Robert's school, where two smelly demonic children finally get together.
Write at the end:
It has been said that "the evil of children is pure evil because they do not know what evil is."
In the eyes of two lawless children, a child who is weaker than himself like Little James is like a "toy", can play to death at will, and human life is trampled like a child's play.
For a long time, there has also been a debate in the academic circles about whether there are so-called "natural criminals". But it's clear that the impression of the nurturing education and the environment in which they grew up is just as important, and for the two 10-year-old murderers, the nightmarish home environment is clearly the biggest trigger for their inner demons. But those who have more care and warmth in childhood, someone has taught them what is good and evil, and I believe that they will not do such heinous evil deeds at a young age.