Letter: Bulger judgment

Sir: We all have what we believe to be a sense of justice. What are we to make of the demonisation of two not very bright 10-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds who killed a toddler ("Bulger killers set to gain earlier release", 17 December).

Mothers and their drug-addicted boyfriends do it and do not get life- sentences. Drunken drivers do it. Paedophiles torture and kill, and yet find themselves out in the community before you can say ... oh well, what can one possibly say?

If a Home Secretary, vote-driven as they are, cannot see what cruelty and injustice is at work here, how shall we ever civilise our young? If I had been the mother of Jamie Bulger I would have wanted to thrash those two boys to within an inch of their lives: primitive, understandable, but illegal. Did we do better?

DORAINE POTTS

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire