Letter: Hedgehog victim

Sir: I know we are supposed to have more important things on our mind here in Northern Ireland right now, but I cannot stop thinking about the student who has been jailed for three months for microwaving a hedgehog (report, 20 May).

While this may have been a very silly and cruel thing to do, how on earth can it justify a custodial sentence? Nobody was harmed, nothing was stolen, and no property was damaged. Biodiversity is not threatened by the death of one hedgehog.

It appears that this sentence was imposed to "reflect public disgust". Is this a basis for justice? Does it merit ruining a young man's life, and wasting his expensive education? The law has a higher obligation to society that reflecting its disgust; sentencing is not meant to be a political fashion statement.

Time, as they say in these parts, to free the Hedgehog One.

NEWTON EMERSON

Portadown,

Co Armagh