Should child killer Mary Bell remain under lifelong anonymity?

Question

This is old news, but I was curious as to what people think about Mary Bell.

For anyone who doesn't know, Bell killed a 3 year old child in 1968 when she herself was 11. Bell's mother, a prostitute, tried to murder her 4 times when she was a kid and regularly 'rented' her to customers, which was obviously seen as a cause of her diagnosed psychopathy. She was rehabilitated and freed, and is now 50.

Several years ago the press found her, Bell was released from custody in 1980 and was granted anonymity to start a new life with her daughter, born in 1984. This daughter did not know of her mother's past until Bell's location was discovered by reporters: she and her mother had to leave their house with bed sheets over their heads. The daughter's anonymity was originally protected until she reached the age of 18. However, on May 21, 2003, Bell won a High Court battle to have her own anonymity and that of her daughter extended for life.

As Bell was released fully rehabilitated in 1980, should she be left alone to carry on? Or do you think that the anonymity should be lifted now that Bell's child is an adult?

I agree completely. Let her be.

arniesmum - no disrespect, but think logically. If Mary Bell's identity is revealed, people will easilt find her daughter - who is, as you say, totally innocent.

janet - I don't have a problem! I agree withyou, as you would have seen if you'd bothered to read what I wrote. Sheesh.

Answer 1

No matter what you think of Mary Bell she was not even a teenager. She was a small child and suffering appalling sexual abuse. This should happen to no child. When it does the country is up in arms. But not for Mary Bell.

Not for one moment has she excused her actions. She has not manipulated her past to defend her actions. She now has lived her life quietly and she has a child of her own. Realistically the authorities will have been watching her very closely. Mary Bell lives with what she has done. Surely that combined with the punishment of years of sexual abuse and 12 years in prison is punishment enough?

Answer 2

I feel so awful for her daughter - imagine being a kid, suddenly finding your house surrounded by press 24 hours a day, and then your mum telling you that she was responsible for one of the most notorious and well known murders in the UK. It astounds me how the press could quite deliberately screw up a young girl's head like that.

I think Mary Bell should be left alone to get on with her life. What she did was hideous and vile, but the fact is that she was a 10 year old being subjected to regular murder attempts from her own mother, not to mention the dreadful sexual abuse she suffered from her mother's punters, throughout the first 11 years of her life. It was all she'd known. That's not an excuse, but it obviously warped her to the point of becoming psychotic.

Your point about child abuse hits me hard for personal reasons. I can't imagine myself ever having become a murderess, but I didn't develop a serious mental problem, whereas Bell did. You're quite right about this not being any justification for her behaviour, but she was diagnosed as a psychopath.

She's been rehabilitated, as you said. This has been the case since 1980. Let her be. What use is there in hounding her now, 30 years after she was freed, being deemed as no danger to the public?

Answer 3

I have just looked up this story, and it's just one sick mess.
As I read about this, it made my stomach turn. It's really hard not to react emotionally. I think that whatever the punishment, there is often little or no comfort for the parents' of the victim/s. I have often felt that when if a life has been taken, then the perpetrator also gives up his/her right to a 'normal' life, by that I mean, at least lifelong incarceration. (I am not sure quite decided on the death penalty issue.) Unlike stealing, it's hard to decide on what is a suitable punishment for murder coz no matter what you do, it doesn't bring back the victims. In this whole saga, the only person I feel sorry for is this woman's child, because now she has to carry the burden of the mother's sin. Will her daughter ever be able to bring back a fella and say: "this is my mum, oh by the way..."
If anyone's identity should be protected then hers, coz she had nothing to do with this.

Answer 4

Yes I think anonymity should remain. It was a tragic situation. A child killing a child. Mary Bell herself was a victim of terrible abuse, I also feel for the parents of the child she killed.
Let some good come out of this situation, I hope Mary Bell's daughter will go on to have a decent, happy life and be a good mother herself.

Answer 5

Good question.
I went to a public meeting 2 years ago in which the subject came up - living in the area there are still some raw nerves. One woman who knew the victim was livid about the fact that Bell was now free, and so were her neighbours.
This has some repercussions with the James Bulger case if the boys are ever released. Also remember when Maxine Carr was released, but she didn't murder anyone? The press hounded her for months and she had to change her identity.

I'm not advocating not punishing murderers but it does seem as if the press are taking the law into their own hands far too much. If they have done their time then leave them be.

Answer 6

It's hard to know what to think about child cases like Mary Bell and her accomplice Norma, as well as the Jamie Bulger killers Thompson and Venables.
On the one hand, if they are deemed rehabilitated and have paid their debt to society, then they should be left alone to get on with their lives.
On the other hand, to behave as they did at the age of ten, and in the girls' case, not once, but twice, is shocking, to say the least. If they were diagnosed psychotic, and had acted out to such an extreme at that young age, then you have to question what rehabilitation really means.
My son is ten. He's not a psychotic, and I know he would never contemplate such things, and never will. By the same token, children who act with such dispassion and violence at the age of ten are pretty well set in the mould of the people they are.
I don't know, it's tough. I don't advocate the press hounding them, and I certainly don't think Bell's daughter should ever have been brought into it, but I would want to know she was living nearby if it were my neighbourhood.
Bring me sunshine: The Jamie Bulger killers were released in 2001, are now living under assumed identities, courtesy of the taxpayers, and one of them has had at least one child that I know of...

Answer 7

Definitely,given the general mob mentality of people in this country,spurred on by the tabloid press.Mary Bell came from an horrendous background,and was only a child when she committed her acts.Given the fact that she has been successfully rehabilitated,I think she deserves the right to lifelong anonymity(along with her daughter)to avoid a witch hunt.What hope is there in a civilised society,if people who have already been punished are subjected to further harassment?

Excellent question-one of the best that I've seen on here.

Answer 8

She should keep her anonymity - she has suffered enough.
Without taking anything away from the parents of the child she killed when she was but a child herself, Mary Bell had such an abusive childhood that she should be allowed to try to build herself a new life.
The essence of the matter is that if we could trust the Great British Public to be sane and sensible about ex-offenders in society, instead of seeing them turn into baying lynch mobs if they get so much as a sniff of someone like Mary living in their area then she wouldn't need to be anonymous.
It says more about society than about Mary Bell.

Answer 9

i'm staggering myself via asserting this yet i think of she and her daughter might desire to hold the anonymity - rather her daughter, who wasn't at fault interior the 1st place. Mary Bell develop into basically a baby herself whilst she committed this homicide. below customary circumstances, i might have stated that allowances should not be made in simple terms as a results of fact SHE develop into abused, etc. yet her project develop right into a techniques from customary. recently, ADULTS get a existence sentence which frequently ability 7 years and that they are out in approximately 4 - some quicker. This female has served approximately 40 bloody years. bypass away her and her wean in peace.

Answer 10

Well first off I have to say what a disturbing story. Just spent the last hour reading up on it. Poor girl I feel bad for her also. I think she may show now she is reformed because it has been years but upon her release they could not determine her reformed because I dont think she ever opened up about her abuse. I think people got lucky with this one and so did her daughter. But she did serve her time and her daughter had nothing to do with this so yes I do think at this point they deserve it. I would not go as far as saying they knew she was reformed just from her own word of mouth however when she was released. I would say she is a rare statistic to not have done it again. I would actually like to read her book now to see if she says anything about things that happened to her that may have led her to be this way. This story reminds me alot of the James Blunger one. I wonder if the boys that killed James Blunger had info on the Mary Bell case and thought they could do the same. I think crimes and details should be not displayed for all to see because there is to many wacked people out there that are copy cats and want to see if they can get away with it.