Letters: Treating burglary victims as criminals sends a dangerous message

a police officer
Credit: joe giddens/pa

SIR – Burglary is a despicable crime; targeting a 78-year-old even more so.

The case of Richard Osborn-Brooks should be used to highlight the right of a victim of (aggravated) burglary to defend themselves, their loved ones and 
their home.

Andrew J Smith
West Malling, Kent

 

SIR – If the law is really such that it required Mr Osborn-Brooks to be arrested on suspicion of murder, then the law is an ass. It seems that any defensive action taken against burglars carries with it the risk of arrest, fingerprinting, photographing, DNA sampling and time in a police cell. It may be better to allow the burglars to take what they want and leave.

I am now 72; but when I was 23, and working alone at the...

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