MAY I correct an erroneous impression given by your news item about the sad death of Terry Connell? (BEN, March 29).

You report correctly that the sentences passed upon five of the "Bolton Seven" defendants at Bolton Crown Court were quashed.

As it stands, this implies that these five suffered no penalty.

However, the Court of Appeal substituted alternative sentences which, although less severe than the originals, were far in excess of the absolute discharges argued for by the defendants' barrister.

The whole case remains as a blot on the face of the British legal system, as the result of a discriminatory law, which I believe will be abolished in the next Parliament.

Allan Horsfall

PRESIDENT

PO Box 342

London WC1X 0DU

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