Letter: Deaths spark moral debate

Sir: The most appalling feature of the recent murder of James Bulger is that it seems to have been committed by children, and people are asking how children can be growing up to such things.

Yesterday you published a picture of a crowd outside a house where an arrest was being made in connection with the case. By all accounts this crowd had the potential to become a lynch mob, which would have brought it down to the same level as their intended victim (lower, as he appears to have been innocent).

The most cursory examination of your picture shows that this mob includes a substantial number of children. It would do the parents of these children no harm to examine their own consciences before continuing their abuse of others.

Yours faithfully,

P. J. GROOM

Hadleigh, Essex

19 February