The biggest shock of this particular crime seems to me to be that the perpetrator was a mature woman and not a teenage boy driven by hormones and violent computer games, or a middle aged dirty old man. We still live in a society that has not quite come to grips with the fact that women can be just as, if not more, cruel and sadistic as men.

We keep hearing that most serial killers or rapists are male - but there is sex equality in all things these days. We just haven't quite got it into our heads and our children's heads that women are capable of terrible things too.

The precedent for this, I feel, is the 1960's cases of the Moors Murders. The general public could easily believe that Ian Brady was capable of murder but were aghast at the evidence that proved Myra Hindley was the one enticing these children in and watching, and I have no doubt, joining in the sadistic murders.

LTS