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| Selling stories about notorious convicts to the tabloids stokes the mob mentality | Selling stories about notorious convicts to the tabloids stokes the mob mentality |
| (6 months later) | |
| Richard Trunkfield, a former operational support officer at Woodhill prison, has become one of the first people to plead guilty to charges made as a result of the police's Operation Elveden investigation into illegal newsgathering. Trunkfield made £3,450 by selling details of the incarceration of James Bulger's killer, Jon Venables, to the Sun newspaper. He has been jailed for 16 months. | Richard Trunkfield, a former operational support officer at Woodhill prison, has become one of the first people to plead guilty to charges made as a result of the police's Operation Elveden investigation into illegal newsgathering. Trunkfield made £3,450 by selling details of the incarceration of James Bulger's killer, Jon Venables, to the Sun newspaper. He has been jailed for 16 months. |
| Compared to the horror of Venables's crime – he and his friend John Thompson, then both aged 10, abducted and murdered two-year-old Bulger in 1993 – this may seem like a footnote. Instead, it's a particularly sordid example of the corrupting effect that populist media campaigns can have. | Compared to the horror of Venables's crime – he and his friend John Thompson, then both aged 10, abducted and murdered two-year-old Bulger in 1993 – this may seem like a footnote. Instead, it's a particularly sordid example of the corrupting effect that populist media campaigns can have. |
| In a country that doesn't hang children for their crimes, the best the lynch mob can hope for is continued imprisonment. When Venables was returned to jail, as an adult, those who sought the most comprehensive vengeance possible got what they wanted. Yet the actions of people such as Trunkfield, the journalists who bought the stories and the newspaper that published them, undermined even this. It's inevitable that on rare occasions the criminal justice system will be compelled to manage the perpetrators of notorious crimes. Yet there's a profound lack of understanding of the difficulty of that task. When journalists and public servants choose to feed that lack of understanding, rather than challenge it, they commit a shameful, inhuman dereliction of duty. | In a country that doesn't hang children for their crimes, the best the lynch mob can hope for is continued imprisonment. When Venables was returned to jail, as an adult, those who sought the most comprehensive vengeance possible got what they wanted. Yet the actions of people such as Trunkfield, the journalists who bought the stories and the newspaper that published them, undermined even this. It's inevitable that on rare occasions the criminal justice system will be compelled to manage the perpetrators of notorious crimes. Yet there's a profound lack of understanding of the difficulty of that task. When journalists and public servants choose to feed that lack of understanding, rather than challenge it, they commit a shameful, inhuman dereliction of duty. |
| • This article was amended on Monday 1 April 2013 to change Jamie to James Bulger in the standfirst. | • This article was amended on Monday 1 April 2013 to change Jamie to James Bulger in the standfirst. |
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