1. Released on licence means they will be returned to prison if they break any terms of the conditions of their release. Yes, you raise a good point about the Home Office needing to keep an eye on them, but I would be interested to see the factual information that states they are not allowed to leave the UK at all. There is information online regarding ‘released on licence’ conditions for prisoners, but I cannot find anything that directly relates to the special conditions that apply in this case.

2. Aussies are not obsessed with them being sent here. Like many nationalities, our interest in this is sparked because of the reports that one of them is in fact here. Yes, there have also been reports in the past that one of them relocated to Australia. This does not make us obsessed. Interested…..yes. Obsessed…..no. Having said that, there is a natural element of human curiosity when a convicted child murderer here is said to be the same child murderer from the UK.

3. The eye colour is a bit difficult to attest to using the images we have access to online, particulary as the photos of Dante Arthurs are not exactly wide-eyed mugshots. So yes, you could possibly be correct in stating one has blue eyes, one has brown eyes however this alone would not convince me Dante isn’t Robert. I’ve had friends with contact lenses who have changed their eye colour depending on what colour they felt like having that day. By the way, you do say ‘every picture of Dante’. How many are there? I’ve only seen two.

4. The UK papers are bound by a worldwide media blackout, so I am not sure how they can report on what Venables and Thompson are up to regularly if they are bound legally by the blackout. Obviously if one of them screws up, like Venables recently has, then different rules apply. However, this ‘incident’ with Venables has actually proven that the media DON’T report their every move as this is the first time they’ve been able to report Venables’ past brushes with the law.

5. As previously stated, the media ban is worldwide. It DOES NOT only apply to England and Wales.

6. The UK papers WOULD NOT have published any information regarding to Dante being Thompson or Venables. The situation regarding the boys is unprecedented and the media ban would be like nothing ever experienced in the media previously. The ramifications for publishing ANY information regarding the boys would be harsh and severe. Not even The Sun or NOTW would take this risk. It is foolish to presume they would, even if they believe it is in the public’s interest. We are not talking about basic law here, this is a situation that has cost the UK taxpayer millions of pounds. There was huge backlash regarding these boys being released and given new identities. There is too much at stake for a paper to merely print an article if they believed the public was at risk.

So whilst you would like to tar us all with the same ’stupid’ brush, I suggest you look a lot deeper into the superficial comments you make regarding both the Bulger murder and the subsequent murder of Sofia.

4.

At the time I was sucked into the conspiracy theory basically because I am a ‘well, why can’t it be true’ type of person. Yes, maybe I’ve watched too much crime television but I have a personality that questions much of what I’m told to believe or follow.

From the outset this case riveted me; I remember watching the news about Jamie Bulger with horror – I was in my teens at the time; I grew up in Perth in a suburb with close proximity to Canning Vale so the news about Sofia was very close to home; I am very interested in psychology and the connections between this crime and the Jamie Bulger crime.

Like many other people on this blog, I too am extremely surprised at the lack of comment on Dante by relatives, colleagues, friends, neighbours, etc – they’re usually the ones the media hound to gather their ‘dirt’ on the accused. There has been a lack of information of this type from both Australia and England. Yes, this could be a result of a media blackout, but the question has to be asked: the trial is done and dusted, so why do we still know nothing more about Dante from his ‘network’ of people?

I recall reading ‘The West’ at the height of the Dante Arthurs/Robert Thompson hysteria. There was a cryptic article, much like a ‘we know something but we can’t tell you’ attitude that stated ‘The West’ had sent an investigate reporter to interview Dante when he was arrested for a sexual attack on a girl a year prior to the murder of Sofia, but they couldn’t reveal the reasoning behind it; they were bound legally from publishing any information about it. Then, within the following week we learnt that it was in regard to Dante’s identity. So one year before the public were alerted to this by means of a prison guard’s email, ‘The West’ were investigation Dante for the same reason.

Many questions are asked also regarding his previous offences and the manner in which the charges were dismissed. Of course there is also the question of how he was caught so quickly after Sofia’s murder when the only witnesses were the brother and uncle. This is another point that has been raised so I won’t go into it again.

Through a friend, I knew of an ambulance officer who was well aware of the details of this crime. From what I recall, he did not attend the scene but he did take the call from the 000 operators. By all accounts the crime was incredibly horrific – more horrific than what has been released to the public. This was another sticking point for me – the brutality of this crime and the brutality of the Jamie Bulger crime. Coincidence? Yes, maybe.

There is so much information (or lack thereof) that could be discussed here, but as four years have now passed since the crime and we are still none the wiser to much more than what we knew back then, my presumption is that we will never really find out much more about Dante than what we know now.

So am I still sucked into this conspiracy theory? Absolutely! As I am also a believer that we are not being told the truth – and let’s face it, we never will be – and that Dante Arthurs, by all accounts, is Robert Thompson.

I can’t believe that he was questioned over the 2003 Canning Vale attack and placed under house arrest for some months, wearing a security anklet, with police accused of being too robust with their interviews and yet they didn’t test his shorts for D.N.A.

Why should the offenders be released back into the community under an assumed name EVER? Where is the justice for the victims and their families? Where is the justice for the community, who could be living next door to the released child murderer and not be aware. Where is the justice for any future victims? There is talk in the UK that the same new identity process could apply to the three adults responsible for the death of Baby P in the UK on their eventual release. This must not be allowed to happen.

Neither of them has been relocated abroad, their whereabouts have always been tracked by the many newspapers in our country that know where they are and who they are, but are bound by this stupid order. The revelations of the last few days prove Venables has always been in the UK and you can guarantee Thompson is still here too. He simply will not be allowed to leave the country. That’s a FACT, not my opinion. So you Aussies can bang on about your conspiracy theories that they’re in your country all you want, if it makes you feel better. But you’re completely wasting your time and effort, they ain’t there!

By the way Sam, I’ve got pale blue eyes and I’m far from evil!!!!! (Had to have a good chuckle at your dramatic way of linking eye colour to someone’s persona!!)