Why do rights of murderers triumph over cost to taxpayers?

HOW many of us believe that heinous killers like Levi Bellfield, who counted schoolgirl Milly Dowler among one of his victims, should forfeit human rights earned by law-abiding people, when they are rightfully convicted and jailed?

Yet, he has been granted legal aid to demand £30,000 for injuries he received after an assault from another prisoner (Yorkshire Post, August 4).

It seems granting legal aid for Bellfield, and others similarly convicted, to sue the prison service, reaffirms the decadent state of British justice yet it provides a platform for the do-gooders to lecture all who disagree with such decisions about the rights of everyone, including such vile murderers.

We will be told, forcefully, that this is the essential behaviour of a civilised country which has a duty of care to Bellfield which must be carried out. I have to question whether this is civilised or decadent behaviour.

The rights of murderers obviously take precedence over the costs to taxpayers, with the legal profession very eager to gobble up more easily obtained legal aid cash, apparently unconcerned at the dire state of the nation’s finances or the fairness of continually making taxpayers fund such spending, when they are suffering real hardship with very many struggling to care for their own families.

The cash is running out but some don’t seem able to understand this and legal aid lawyers must believe the supply of money is never-ending.

However, if we have to accept this sickening logic advanced by a minority, how on earth is the figure of £30,000, which Bellfield is claiming, arrived at? Just what are his injuries? According to reports he received injuries to his face and mouth – were these £30,000 worth of injuries or does the legal establishment just dream up a figure? Shouldn’t the paying public be shown detailed photographs with an independent medical report to properly see what they are being forced to pay for?

Would a soldier serving in Afghanistan who receives similar injuries be awarded £30,000 or is this ludicrous, lottery sized award, reserved only for murderers?