SIR - The two miserable specimens connected with the murder of Sharon Beshenivsky were free on bail, even though they had already been involved in burglary and gun crime.

Isn't it amazing that the long-suffering British public continues to accept this intolerable situation?

Why are we not marching on the Lord Chancellor's Office, with pitchforks and blazing torches, demanding our out-of-touch, weak judiciary and gutless criminal justice system start to protect the general public?

The feeble Probation Service is yet another example of the way our country, under a massively incompetent Government, has surrendered to criminality, with all those engaged in law and order being more concerned with political correctness and the rights of criminals.

Time after time we read of another inept judge allowing a serious offender to walk free only to murder, rape or rob again.

Mary-Anne Leneghan, John Monkton, Robert Symons, Martin Bates and Sharon Beshenivsky are just some of the people no longer with us due to this judicial incompetence.

Common sense has been replaced by half baked sociological or psychiatric ideas, trendy, fashionable dogma and rampant political correctness.

Tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime? Don't make us laugh.

Malcolm Wood, Westercroft View, Northowram