I'm still using OL2002.  In my last contract, I used OL2003 but
nothing ever made it into the Junk folder since the upstream filtering
at the mail host was working very well so I gained no personal
experience in deleting from the Junk folder.  I would suspect deleting
from the Junk folder in OL2003 and OL2007 might work as before (to
move items into the Deleted Items folder); however, those versions
added a Bayes-like spam filter so I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft
changed the delete action in the Junk folder from a move to a
permanent delete.

Now if the OP used Shift+Del to permanently delete the folder or
items, or deleted them from the Deleted Items folder, too, which is a
permanent delete action then that's a different problem.