3/8/10

co-dependent relationships

Aangirfan reported the other day on Venable's childhood.

Among the points made, he had a troubled home life and was afraid of his mother:
  • Jon's father Neil separated from his wife Susan when Jon was four. After his parents separated Jon began to have problems at school.
  • Jon's mother Susan Venables has been described as a loose woman whose neighbours "noted a procession of men friends for Mrs Venables".
  • Reportedly, Susan was prone to hysterics. "She came from a 'strict and disciplined' background, and had been observed physically and verbally assaulting Jon." Jon had a terror of being rejected by his mother. Jon was afraid of his mother.
He behaved strangely at school:

  • Back in 1991, when Jon was eight, his teacher reported that the quiet, timid boy would "rock back and forth in his chair, holding onto his desk, moaning and making odd noises."
  • "He banged his head on the furniture... cut himself with scissors... tore down the displays and artwork of other students..."He approached another classmate from behind and began choking the boy with a wooden ruler...
  • "No one thought of Jon as a 'bad' kid ... some teachers thought of him as a sweet child, and felt sympathy for him. They thought he was pleading for help."
He was an easy target for other children:
  • Jon had a squint in his eye and other kids mocked him.
  • "Jon was an easy target for the other kids, and they teased him mercilessly, because he was so easily worked up by their provocations...
  • Jon met Robert Thompson, a manipulative kid who reportedly had psychopathic tendencies.The two became bullies.

Today, not much has changed. According to sources, Jon Venables is still a terrified, out of control, easily worked-up stress-bag.

News of the World reports:

...Venables was last night said to be "tearful, cowed and terrified" by life on an isolation wing at a high security prison in the south of England. A prison source told us: "Venables is in a mess. He has never been in an adult prison and is extremely anxious. "He is being given sedatives to calm him down and has been prone to angry outbursts and tears of despair." 

...He was discreetly rushed to a jail we can't identify under an assumed name and false charges. He was immediately put into solitary confinement in his own cell with CCTV for 23 hours a day and put on suicide watch. The cell had only a bed and a TV to watch his favourite soaps Coronation Street and EastEnders. With no chance of going to the dining hall meals were delivered to his cell. Venables' day began at 7am when he was woken and handed breakfast of boiled eggs and toast. Main meals were mostly pizza and chips, chicken with rice and sugary cakes for dessert. Then he was escorted to the shower block by a guard only after the other inmates had started work at 8am. In afternoons, he was taken on his own to the exercise yard for an hour, walking and chain smoking using a lighter borrowed from a guard.

...He was whisked to a new jail and booked in under the name of a genuine prisoner whose file said he had been charged with rape. After psychological tests he is now off suicide watch and been given more freedom to mix with other inmates. He is not allowed posters on his white cell walls but has a picture of a sexy lingerie model pinned to a notice board.
Jon Venables seems incapable of dealing with the consequences of his behavior. Is he in a bad relationship.... with the UK government? Does the UK government enable Jon Venables?

In a negative sense, enabling is also used in the context of problematic behavior, to signify dysfunctional approaches that are intended to help but in fact may perpetuate a problem. A common theme of enabling in this latter sense is that third parties take responsibility, blame, or make accommodations for a person's harmful conduct (often with the best of intentions, or from fear or insecurity which inhibits action). The practical effect is that the person themselves does not have to do so, and is shielded from awareness of the harm it may do, and the need or pressure to change. It is a major environmental cause of addiction.

It would seem, that as Venables watches his soap operas and has his sugary cakes delivered to him in prison, and has the guards bring him to shower after all the other prisoners go to work (I guess his is exempted from work), while under the relaxing effect of tranquilizers, or chain smoking or looking at his smutty picture of a lingerie model, he remains "tearful, cowed and terrified" of what might happen to him should his personal security bubble get penetrated. Not that I am totally unsympathetic, because to be honest he is the product of totally inept parenting and guardianship for his entire life. Take it from where it comes.

^^^^^^^

And the UK government continues to enable their twisted progeny, Jon Venables, to hide from public scrutiny. The authorities were supposed to know what he has been up to. He has been the responsibility of the authorities for many years. Either they did not know what he was doing -- hard to believe -- leaving them open to charges of negligence and incompetence, or they did know -- not hard to believe -- leaving them open to charges of complicity.

What is the lesser scandal? The negligence and incompetence, or as they call it here, a "supervision scandal."


 
Venables drew this picture weeks BEFORE murdering James Bulger.
Is it a picture of Ritual Abuse? What kind of costume is that figure wearing?
What had he been exposed to?


The Government's handling of Jon Venables' reimprisonment descended into farce today as Jack Straw yet again rejected pleas to reveal why he is back behind bars. His refusal to break his silence on the case of the James Bulger killer came despite it emerging the murderer is facing trial over alleged possession of child porn. Despite continued pleas by the distraught family of the murdered toddler, the Justice Secretary told MPs he could not say more in the 'interests of justice'.

...Critics believe the cover-up has been ordered to prevent any further embarrassment for ministers over the Home Office's supervision of one of Britain's most notorious killers.


But despite ministers' refusal to come clean:
  • On Thursday it was revealed he has had drink and drugs problems since his release from a secure unit in 2001.
  • On Saturday he was accused of a serious sex offence and it was revealed he had previously worked as a nightclub bouncer.
  • Yesterday it was claimed he had been caught with child pornography and had even disclosed his real identity to strangers.
Probation officers and police are trying to establish what contact he has had with children since his release from a secure unit in 2001 and how Venables came to be in possession of the appalling images.
Their worst fears are he could be part of an internet paedophile ring which traded sick images of children 'to order'.

...But there are already fears that because of sensitivities around the case, any trial could be subjected to unprecedented reporting restrictions, meaning the public may never know precisely what happened and whether the authorities could have monitored him more closely.

The terms of his parole imposed strict conditions on his contact with youngsters but there are fears that Venables may have deceived his probation handlers. If that is the case, it would constitute a major supervision scandal which could engulf those who supported his release from custody nine years ago and the Home Office unit which had responsibility for over-seeing his 'rehabilitation'.

To make matters worse for the authorities, Venables keeps talking.

Sources said Venables was 'psychologically stressed' before he was recalled to prison, to such an extent that he began revealing his true name to people. It was claimed that he descended into a 'persistent state of self-disclosure' in which he felt compelled to tell others that he was one of Britain's most notorious murderers.

Ian Cumming, a consultant forensic psychiatrist who has worked with serious offenders in the prison system, said 'the national demonisation of an individual was a heavy burden' that could explain why someone would find it difficult to keep their past hidden for ever. 'Double lives are a burden for people,' Mr Cumming said. 'Just juggling two relationships is stressful and the secrecy takes its toll. People are not necessarily well equipped to do this sort of thing; it's not their natural state.'
He looks, for all the world, like an accident waiting to happen.

5 comments:

Penny said...

holy shit, he drew that picture before he committed murder.

I have to be honest, I have never seen a picture drawn by a child, like that!

Generally, all the ones I have seen, have been much happier.

Flowers, animals, sunshine, trees...
cars, boats, fish, ya know the sort, castles and princesses.

That kid had to have been seeing some weird, seriously weird shit.

A. Peasant said...

agreed. i am trying to understand the criss-crossed straps. it looks like sado-masochist stuff, also the head looks like there might be a fetish mask. 10 year old boys don't normally know about that sort of thing, leaving aside the knives and dying bodies, which granted any imaginative boy might dream up.

Anonymous said...

Fascinating. I wondered if pedophile rings are involved somewhere.

- Aangirfan

A. Peasant said...

yes, we can't go too far without tripping over one. if Venables has a personal history of SRA, and if he keeps talking about his past, i would expect that the extremely difficult task of keeping him safe will experience a failure.

Marycatherine Barton said...

Too horrible. Stay healthy, friends of children, and of liberty and justice for all.

legal mumbo jumbo

Disclaimer: The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein.

Fair Use: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.