Offenders escaping justice

From: Les Vasey, former head of West Yorkshire Police Child Protection Unit.

The disgraceful attack on the parents of Milly Dowler is symptomatic of the limitations of the UK’s adversarial criminal justice system (Yorkshire Post, June 25).

As the former head of the West Yorkshire Police Child Protection Unit, I was regularly faced with the frustrations of our investigators to bring offenders to trial.

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The further emotional damage that would be sustained by very young children who were already traumatised by sexual abuse often by a close relative, presented ethical and practical difficulties. An overwhelmingly high number of perpetrators therefore escape criminal proceedings and often go on to re-offend with impunity.

Surely it is time we considered alternatives, such as Europe’s Inquisitorial System, where witnesses are forensically examined by investigating magistrates using expert witnesses to validate the evidence?

Until we change the system, the vast majority of serious offenders – including rapists and child abusers – will continue to go unpunished and free to re-offend.

Time to review money laws

From: Maurice Bethell, Kilham, East Yorkshire.

I CAN certainly sympathise with your correspondent, MP Fitzgerald (Yorkshire Post, June 24).

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The root cause of such problems lies within the money-laundering laws and the intransigence of the financial institutions and Parliament.

My wife and I have been married for more than 40 years. The only form of identification she possesses are the old-fashioned driving licence and her library card.

Birth /marriage certificates are not deemed legal identification and bills come in my name.

She recently wished to take out an ISA, the first for several years, and in order to spread her investment, she applied to a company with whom she had never dealt with before.

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Alas, they refused to accept her as in their eyes she could not satisfy their identity criteria, so she had to invest with her previous ISA investment company.

Is it not time that MPs revisited the money-laundering laws and amended them in order to stop this discriminating against small savers/investors?

All political parties are fond of telling the populace that they should save for their old age; surely they are not so dense as to see how these rules prevent people saving?

Motorists’ fury at airport fee

From: Robin Colvill, Wakefield.

WHEN I took my partner to Leeds Bradford Airport, I had no money with me, so had to beg another driver for the £2 drop-off fee.

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I did see some drivers reversing down the one-way road to avoid this, and cars stopping on the roundabout to let passengers out.

I for one will not be using the airport again. No other airport does this, so come on LBA, get your act together.

From: Mike Lacey, Hill Rise, Elloughton.

SO long as people shrug their shoulders and decide they will just have to pay the £2 drop-off charge, Leeds Bradford Airport will get away with it.

The one thing the Midlands/North-East is blessed with is good local airports, so unless you live so close to Leeds Bradford that it would not make sense to go elsewhere, try Manchester, East Midlands, Humberside, Doncaster Robin Hood, Tees or even Newcastle.

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We are spoiled for choice and one of them is bound to be reasonably convenient, have more to offer and be more user friendly.

Work plan for handicapped

From: Alan Chapman, Beck Lane, Bingley.

My MP is Philip Davies, and letters abound in this paper attacking him for his suggestions aimed at alleviating the unemployed handicapped from regular disappointment at not securing employment.

Before becoming MP for Shipley, he worked in the highly competitive world of supermarket retailing, and I spent my entire working career in sales, being self-employed with staff, working hard in a competitive environment.

Consequently, we both understand the sales world that is ruled by the principle of the three “Ps” – packaging, presentation and price.

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When a product does not sell, the three “Ps” need adjusting. For the handicapped job-seeker, there is little room to manoeuvre except on price.

The handicapped working at permanently reduced rates is wrong, but doing so to get a start makes sense, a method of securing a sale when the employer buys their service.

Perhaps starting at a £1 an hour less for a year, then 50p an hour less in the second year, then the rate for the job, gives the handicapped the opportunity to prove their worthiness.