WITH reference to your paper's recent coverage of the case involving local primary school teacher Neville Moss.

As I always knew, Mr Moss was today found innocent of all charges against him.

However, I feel that your coverage of the story has been nothing short of despicable.

His address, family details and photograph have been emblazoned in the pages of the BEN -- in effect finding him guilty even before the jury had considered the evidence against him.

Neville Moss taught me as a child at Mytham CP School and I later had the pleasure of working with him at Oxford Grove School.

He is a true professional whose integrity has been tested to its very limits but who has shown nothing but the utmost dignity during this farcical trial.

He is the type of teacher we desperately need in our schools and yet his life, his reputation and maybe his career lie in ruins.

The BEN was once a newspaper which dealt with serious issues in a sensitive and fair way.

But this story and your coverage of it have exposed it as a scandal sheet hellbent on ruining the life of an innocent, hard-working family man whose only crime appears to be his naivety when dealing with the comments of girls in his care.

What I find most appalling is the way in which the BEN has now changed its opinion in an attempt to show how easy it is for teachers to be compromised in this dreadful way.

I am sure that Mr Moss would have appreciated it more if your paper had afforded him this concern before the 'not guilty' verdict was announced.

Emma J Emery

(nee Dugdale)

Martin Avenue

Little Lever

Editor's note: It was not the Bolton Evening News which placed Mr Dugdale on trial, nor have we changed our opinion over the difficulties teachers face when dealing with children.

We reported the verdict with great prominence and, in doing so, would have stimulated necessary and perhaps overdue debate over this case and others like it.