Last week the nation was once more reminded of the horror of the Jamie Bulger murder as one of the killers, Jon Venables, was again sent to prison, this time for downloading images of child pornography.

The CCTV image of Jamie Bulger being led away to his death by two ten year old boys will forever be a scar on the collective psyche of the British people, a nation which prided itself on its wealth and the health and well-being of its children. As the saying goes, nothing hurts like the truth and the truth was, that even in a nation of plenty, we bred monsters.

The age of culpability for children is getting lower and we see evermore children committing vile and violent crimes, sickening indicators of a society that has lost its way. Far from deciding at what age a child becomes beyond redemption, we should be considering the fact that as a society, as a species, perhaps we are also beyond redemption, spawning sinners rather than saviours.