Cries Unheard

In 1968, at the age of eleven, Mary Bell was tried and convicted of murdering two small boys in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Even before she came to court, Mary Bell was demonized as the incarnation of evil, the bad seed personified. But Gitta Sereny, who covered the sensational trial, never accepted this explanation. Over the years, Sereny came to realize that if we are ever to understand the pressures that lead children to commit serious crimes, then we need to turn to the adults who once were those children. Twenty-seven years after her conviction, Mary Bell agreed to talk to Sereny about her harrowing childhood, the two terrible acts committed nine weeks apart, her public trial, and her twelve years of imprisonment - to discuss what was done to her and what she did, who she was and who she became. Nothing she said in five months of intensive talks was intended to excuse her crimes: she herself rejects all mitigation. But Mary Bell's devastating story forces us all to ponder society's responsibility for children at the breaking point.