
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 15, 1993                   TAG: 9305150092
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND                                LENGTH: Short

10-YEAR-OLDS PLEAD INNOCENT IN TOT'S DEATH

Two 10-year-old boys were ordered to stand trial later this year after pleading innocent Friday to kidnapping and murdering a toddler whose abduction was filmed by a supermarket video camera.

During a six-minute appearance, the boys also were charged with trying to abduct another toddler in the shopping center on the same day, Feb. 12.

Liverpool Crown Court Judge Sir Michael Morland ordered the boys, who cannot be identified because of their age, to remain in custody. He set the trial Nov. 1 in Preston, 30 miles north.

Each boy replied "not guilty" to the kidnapping and slaying of 2-year-old James Bulger, whose battered body was found two days after his abduction. Cameras showed him being led away by two boys while his mother was at a checkout counter.

The judge gave no reason for moving the trial from Liverpool. When the boys first appeared in court, an angry crowd gathered outside the courthouse and several people banged on the van carrying them. Their families have been moved to secret addresses since the murder.

by CNB