TREVOR BARK thinks lack of respect is not a criminal offence (HAS, Dec 16). Let’s just hope that that fool of a student Charlie Gilmour shows as much respect to the judge when he’s up in court as he did to the Cenotaph because then he’ll find himself in a cell.

As for Mr Bark sticking up for this buffoon, I suggest he takes a trip to the Somme battlefields to see for himself what this monument represents.

How would he feel if some waste of space jumped all over his loved one’s headstone in the cemetery. The Cenotaph is just that: a headstone to all our missing war dead.

Lawrence McGowan, Sherburn Village, Durham.

WHILE reading Daniel Child’s comments (HAS, Dec 17) concerning Peter Mullen’s column entitled “Education – a privilege not a right” (Echo, Dec 14), I considered the many comments Peter Mullen has made over the years.

I was left wondering if those who paid for Peter Mullen’s education have ever asked for their money back?

CT Riley, Spennymoor