Letter : Respectable folk failed rape victim

Sir: It is evident that no good Samaritans drove by on the night of the rape in Watts Lane, Chislehurst ("Why good Samaritans drove by", 23 December).

Read once more the parable. There were two other characters in the plot, moreover two respectable characters, a priest and a Levite. The unpalatable fact is that these two people more nearly describe most of middle-class respectable Britain than does the Samaritan. Samaritans were despised by respectable Jews, who didn't consider there was anything "good" about them.

What the unfortunate victim needed was for a homeless, destitute asylum- seeker to pass by, not several hundred respectable people.

Jesus understood the nature of the people to whom he spoke and after 2,000 years his biting condemnation still hits home.

Dr J P STEVENS

London N19