Letter: Mary Bell

I ONCE knew Mary Bell's address and was approached by scores of journalists each arguing that if she gave her story it would be a unique opportunity to let everyone know she was now a different person, trying to lead a normal life. I found the only escape was to deny all knowledge of her.

The newspapers gleefully ripping her apart for accepting a few thousand pounds are the ones which would have offered ten times as much for an exclusive. What cynical swines newshounds can be (I was a journalist myself).

KEN NORMAN

Bowness-on-Solway, Cumbria