Lesser Term Sought For Young Murderers

Lawyers for two young boys who kidnapped a toddler, then beat him to death, asked a court Wednesday to reduce their 15-year sentences on grounds that the long prison terms will not prevent other “horrifying” crimes.

Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were just 10 years old when they lured 2-year-old James Bulger from a Liverpool shopping mall on Feb. 12, 1993, and left his battered body on a railway track.

The trial judge recommended that the boys be held for at least eight years. The country’s chief justice subsequently recommended 10 years. But Home Secretary Michael Howard ruled in July 1994 that the boys should serve 15 years.

The boys - now 13 - accept responsibility for their “horrifying crime,” said Edward Fitzgerald, lawyer for Jon Venables. But he said Howard was wrong to order 15-year terms on grounds this would be a deterrent.

“Who are you deterring? Other children of 10?” he said in the appeal to a High Court, the first level in a process that could wind up in the House of Lords, which has authority over Howard in the matter.