I’m a broken man – I’ve never recovered from James’ death, says murdered toddler’s dad Ralph Bulger
GRIEVING Ralph Bulger poses next to a memorial to his murdered son James as he reveals he is still a broken man 30 years after the killing.
Ralph, who yesterday reduced a TalkTV presenter to tears as he spoke of his ordeal, built the water feature at the bottom of his back garden.
It bears the inscription: “The moment that you left me, my heart split in two.
“One side filled with memories, the other side died with you. James Bulger 1990-1993.”
Ralph — who wants to attend a parole hearing for one of his son’s killers, Jon Venables, next month — told presenter Jeremy Kyle yesterday: “I’m a broken man.”
And TalkTV co-host Nicola Thorp welled up as Ralph recounted the decades of pain he had endured since Venables, now 40, and Robert Thompson murdered little James.
Her eyes filled with tears as she told Ralph, 57, his “strength really shines through”.
Venables and Thompson were ten when they abducted James from his mother Denise’s side at a Merseyside shopping centre in February 1993.
They abused and tortured him and his body was found on a railway track two days later.
Both were released, with lifelong anonymity, in 2001.
But Venables, now 40, has twice re-offended and been hauled back to jail in 2010 and 2018.
His two-day parole hearing is being held next month but not likely to be in public.
Ralph believes he should be kept in jail, saying: “He’s a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off, in my opinion. Every child is at risk while he’s out.”
As he waits on a decision on whether he and ex-wife Denise can attend, he said: “I have tried so hard to put my life back together, but I can never be the same person ever again.
“I’ve allowed myself to find happiness with my partner and children but there’s another part of my life that is just darkness and despair.
“I try so hard just to remember the good bits, the fun, the laughter, the noise, but it’s hard to shut out the nightmare bits, too.
“They’re the bits that’ve broken me forever.”