The most notorious case in the UK

In 1993, 2-year-old James Patrick Bulger from Merseyside, England, was murdered on Feb 12.

The toddler was abducted, tortured and murdered by two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. His mutilated body was found on a railway line in Liverpool, two days after his death.

Thompson and Venables were charged with abduction and murder. At that time in the UK, children aged 10 to 14 could only be tried for criminal behavior if the prosecution could prove that offenders understood that their actions were wrong, a rebuttal of the concept of doli incapax, or the incapability of criminal intent, under which it was presumed that children younger than 10 could not be held responsible for their actions.