Children are Capable of Murder too

For the most of us, children are viewed as innocent beings that are living their lives when everything is new and surprising. We wouldn’t want to think about it, but where ever the is a light there must always be a shadow. These shadows of this post are called, Eric Smith, Christopher Pittman, Jon Venables & Robert Thompson. The last two happens to be the youngest on this post as well.

(READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED)

Eric Smith

This post goes first to Eric Smith, who was 13 years old at the time of this certain occurrence. At a young age he acted violently and had instances with explosive anger. As a toddler, he outbursted of rage and banged his head to the floor for no specific reason. Psychiatrists diagnosed him with IED “Intermittent Explosive Disorder” which means that you have sudden bursts of anger without clear provocation to it. People with IED describe the feeling as losing control of their emotions and filling up with anger.

Eric was often bullied in school, which I believe made him a ticking time bomb. On August 22 1993, Eric went to a summer day camp in a local park. On his way there he saw 4-year-old Derrick Robie, who was also going to that certain camp. Eric lured the victim to the nearby forest by wanting to show a shortcut to the day camp. Eric strangled the boy and dropped a large rock on his head. The cause of death was blunt trauma to the head with contributing asphyxia.

Eric confessed his crime to his mother six days later and was arrested on the same evening. On August 1994, Eric was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to prison. He received a maximum jail sentence of nine years to life with parole eligibility of every two years after the first nine years of the sentence. He has paroled nine times, which all have been denied. Until this day, he will sit in prison.

Christopher Pittman

Next we will shortly go through the life of Christopher Pittman. He was 12-years-old in 2001, when he ran away from home, where he have had a lot of problems in the first place. When he was caught, he was placed in facility of runaway children. After a week, the doctor described Paxil for his depression. His father sends him to live with his grandparents in a different state.

Christophers mother had left him outside alone two times in his past and his father was abusive. At his grandparents, Christopher received a new doctor who described a different medicine called Zoloft. This medicine is known to have various side effects as an example, aggression, hallucinations and delusions.

After a while, Christopher started to become aggressive. He choked a student in school bus when they had an argument. He got into an argument with his grandfather and received a spanking as a punishment of his behavior before. In the evening of that same night Christopher walked into his grandparents’ room and shot his grandfather and grandmother with a shotgun. Afterwards he lit the house on fire and escaped. When he was caught, he first told the police that he had been kidnapped.

After a serious questioning, he confessed and also stated that his grandparents deserved what had come to them. The doctor who had described Zoloft to Christopher had doubled his dosage before all this. The doctor wasn’t charged of any crime. Christopher is serving 30 years to life sentence in prison.

Jon Venables & Robert Thompson

Our last shadows are Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. They were in 5th grade in elementary school. On 12th of February 1993, these two boys were skipping class in order to check out a new shopping mall nearby. They had stolen a few items from the mall, including toy soldiers, batteries and even a bucket of paint. Some of these items were later found at the crime scene.

It was midday when these two boys came across to a young boy called James Bulger. James was two-years-old and he was playing outside of the butchers shop while her mother was distracted with the butcher. The butcher had messed up his order. James’s mother walked outside of the shop to find that his son is missing. Police searched through the whole mall, but was unable to locate the young James. Two days later, James was found brutally beaten and sodomized at the railroad tracks several kilometers away from the shopping mall.

Afterwards the police identified Jon and Robert from the security camera footage of the shopping mall. Both confessed during their interviews. It came to police attention that Jon and Robert tried to lure away another two-year-old boy before, but failed when the kids’ mother shoo’d them away. There is a believe that Robert had asked from the police that have they taken the boy to the hospital yet to “get him alive again”.

Jon and Robert were found guilty of Bulger’s murder in November 1993. They became the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century. At first the minimum serving time was eight years. But judges around England suggested a few years increase to the sentence. The Sun newspaper editors published a petition having almost 280,000 signatures in favor to increase the sentences. The sentence was risen to a minimum of 15 years, meaning that they would not be able to be released before the age of 25.

At the time of writing this post the boys have been released from prison and their identities have been secured, the witch-hunt of the vigilantes continues.

Final Thoughts

I choose this topic because I wanted to strive for something unordinary. It was frustrating to read through the horrible things that these kids have done, but if we aren’t willing to know the unpleasant happenings in the world, we are restricting ourselves in a major way life.

Suurin osa Showcasen blogeista on toteutettu osana Laurean opintojaksoja. Koko koulutustarjontaamme voi tutustua nettisivuillamme. Tarjoamme kymmenien tutkintoon johtavien koulutuksien lisäksi myös paljon täydennys- ja erikoistumiskoulutuksia sekä yksittäisiä opintojaksoja avoimen AMK:n kautta!