Cheap shot

YOUR headline “Scotland’s blade-wielding sexual offenders, aged just eight and nine” (20 July) complete with cliche photo of knife-wielding schoolboy (plus – give us strength – reverse baseball cap) represents yet another cheap shot at the expense of troubled victims of dysfunctional circumstances.

A headline along the lines of “Scotland’s black/Jewish/gay/ blade-wielding sexual offenders” accompanied by a photo of the applicable racist/homophobic stereotype would be actionable.

You feed an agenda which demonises troubled children and gives Scotland’s communities the excuse to collude in their exclusion. Yes there was balance within the article; but you had already done the damage. It is time to demand that we all do better. How about an exuberant headline about the causes? Not so easy is it? But neither so cheap.

David Roberts

Stable Cottage

Gruinart, Isle of Islay