Letters from The Northern Echo

JUSTICE

ALFRED Welch gets 14 months in comfort at our expense for killing a decent young family man for basically a laugh, (Echo, July 31).

Repeat sex offenders are routinely turned loose to prey on the most vulnerable. Yobs and druggies rule our town centres while the police keep a discrete distance. I could, of course, go on for ever.

The only conclusion: our criminal justice system stinks and so do the people who run it.

And it's downhill from hereon until we, the silent majority, do something drastic to force politicians to act on our views, starting with the urgent restoration of the death penalty.

Oh, and I would backdate it to deal with people like Welch who might then be laughing on the other side of his face. - Tony Kelly, Crook.

DO NOT believe all you read in the newspapers, even sometimes The Northern Echo. Our police here in Darlington are the best there is, provided you are doing nothing wrong. If you are doing something wrong they illustrate to the rest of us they are the best by catching you.

I live on a main road leading into town. It's a 30mph zone. A simple phone call to PC Mick Hare at Cockerton has brought an instant response, not only to speeding traffic problem, but people of all ages cycling on pavements.

If you are ever in any doubt about our police, simply ask yourself who is always there to help you. - J Barron, Darlington.

GOOD SAMARITAN

THIS is like finding a needle in a haystack. I recently had a bad fall on the main street of our town. A lovely English lady and her daughter came immediately to my assistance. I asked her where she was from and she gave me the name of a town in North Yorkshire. I think it began with a B. I looked at my atlas and came up with a few names that could be right. I decided to take a chance and thought if this letter were published I might be able to locate her and send her a proper thank you. - Jane Halsey, 258 Halsey Lane, Water Mill, NY 11976, USA.

HOW dreadful that the body of a dead woman, run over by a car, was left to lie on the pavement in Johannesburg (Echo, July 27). If such an accident happened in Britain, surely someone would help. To leave anyone lying, like that poor woman, for more than six hours, ignored by motorists and pedestrians, displays callousness almost beyond belief on the part of all who passed by. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

BREAST CANCER

I WOULD like to thank your many readers who supported Imperial Cancer Research Fund's fundraising activities for Breast Cancer Awareness Month last October.

Thanks to the thousands of people who took part in our sponsored walks, abseils and other events, or who gave donations in return for a Pink Ribbon - the symbol of Breast Cancer Awareness Month - a magnificent sum of £1.2m was raised towards our breast cancer research programme.

Once again, we are dedicating October to raising awareness of, and funds for, research into breast cancer which currently affects one in nine women in the UK at some time in their lives. Each week in the UK, nearly 700 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and Imperial Cancer Research Fund is committed to finding new ways of preventing, diagnosing and treating the disease. Each year we spend more than £8m on our pioneering breast cancer research programme.

I am urging people to take part in our fund-raising events during October. Sponsored work-outs, golf tournaments, dance events, Pink Balls, fashion shows and numerous other ideas will be held. If you would like to find out more just call our hotline number on 08701 60 20 40