Detainment: James Bulger film director apologises to family after criticism

Bulger's mother has called for the film to be removed from the Oscars short list

The director of a short film about the killers of James Bulger has apologised after facing criticism from Bulger’s parents.

Irish filmmaker Vincent Lambe’s Detainment is based on transcripts of police interviews with Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who were convicted of murdering two-year-old Bulger after abducting him from a shopping centre when they were 10.

James’s mother Denise Fergus has called for the film to be removed from the Oscars short list in the Best Live Action Short category, while his father Ralph Bulger has criticised the film for being “so sympathetic” to his son’s killers.

“I have never been so cut up and offended by something that shows so little compassion to James and his family,” he told the Daily Mirror.

In an appearance on ITV daytime show Loose Women, Fergus said: “In my own personal opinion I think he’s just trying to big his career up. And to do that under someone else’s grief is just unbelievable and unbearable.”

Lambe has since apologised for not consulting with the family beforehand, but denied making the film for “financial gain” in a statement he posted on Twitter.

He also addressed criticism that the film “humanises the killers”, stating: “If we cannot accept that they are human beings, we will never begin to understand what could have driven them to commit such a horrific crime.”

Speaking to RTE, he said: “[Detained] was never intended to bring any more anguish to the Bulger family. In hindsight, I think we probably should have got in touch or let her [Denise Fergus] know we were going to make it.”