I BELIEVE it to be right that people who are brought before the courts should have a proper defence counsel. However, I have to marvel sometimes at comments made in mitigation to the bench in defence of individuals. A recent case (Echo, Sept 23) described how a youth stole a copper boiler from a local farm.

The defence mitigation was that his client had got off a bus in the area and “stumbled across the boiler” (presumably whilst admiring the scenery or birdwatching ). I travel in this area almost daily and the farm in question is no way near a bus route.

The chairman of the Bench was quite right to point this fact out and rejected the mitigation.

I wonder if there is some kind of bizarre competition going on amongst defence counsels to win a prize for the most intellectually bereft excuse they can think of. If there is no reasonable excuse, would it not better to say: “ I can offer no words of mitigation in this case.”

Ian Sadler, Darlington.