Jim: yes indeed, I do share some of your doubts, in particular those re some of the suggestions made as to how these young people should have been disposed of. But I do not feel that what was ultimately done was right either ~~ certainly released too early, before they could have been thought of as adequately punished IMO; & what I was calling attention to was your implication that none of us knows anything about the case which would entitle us to state objections, and that to do so would make us all slavering *extreme-Mail-reading vengeance-seekers. I felt your statement "you can't pick and choose. - the alternative is trial by media" went too far to the other extreme.

Best

~Michael~

*I express it thus [no pun intended] because I think the Mail can often speak good sense representing some not-too-extreme middle-England views, & does not altogether deserve the obloquy many on this forum fling at it as a sort of reflex. Most of its journalistic standards are perfectly adequate imo.