MY wife and I were about to enter the Vue Cinema at Feethams at about 5.30pm on Sunday when we noted a homeless guy sitting by the railings beside the pedestrian crossing.

He had a paper cup out for donations but was otherwise minding his own business and was not in the least aggressive.

At that point a family group emerged from Vue and a boy, who can have been older than ten, ran up to the homeless guy and spat in his face.

He then went running back to his family group laughing, and the rest of them (adults and kinds) joined in the laughter and walked on.

The homeless guy didn’t flinch and when I asked if he was okay he said that he was and that he didn’t want a fuss.

I generally resist the notion that young people today are all badly behaved, but this look my breath away. What can this kid’s parents have done to give him the impression that that was normal way to behave? Too much sugar maybe?

The homeless are humans and any one of us could end up on the streets given a run of bad luck. I despair.

Chris Patterson, Crook