SIR – Your repeated use of the term ‘vice girls’ is outdated and demeaning. The three women concerned were in their 30s and 40s. They were not ‘girls’.

As we’ve seen with other cases of serial killers, street sex workers make easy targets for murderous men who hate women.

They are usually killed because of their gender and vulnerability rather than any other reason.

A newspaper of quality, and anyone with compassion, would regard them as real people rather than the seedy sub-humans that a titillating phrase like ‘vice girls’ implies.

David Merrick, Moorland Road, Leeds

EDITOR’S NOTE: In the case of three similar and allegedly-related killings, we need to use a generic term to identify the subject to the readership and “vice girls” is generally understood to be a more sympathetic expression than the word “prostitute”, while the term “sex worker” is sometimes used to refer to people working in the field of sexual health and, therefore, confusing. The police employ a “vice squad” not a “sex worker” squad, for instance. The quality and sympathetic nature of our reporting should be judged on its content in the round.