Identity crisis

As a footnote to John Forsyth's article in (Law & Legal Affairs, 3 May) on video-imaging replacing police identification parades, may I comment that being an innocent in the line-up can be an uncomfortable experience?

I was twice in ID line-ups, on both occasions under the auspices of the Royal Air Force police. There was always the nagging fear that you would be picked out as the culprit, even if you could readily prove that you were not, and I believe that this might itself have induced a guilty look and led to mistaken identification.

In one of my appearances, the offence was indecent assault, and, when the complainant was brought in by the civil police and walked along the line, the thought of a wrong ID and the subsequent embarrassment had me sweating. Fortunately, I "escaped" both times.

And the RAF Police neither invited you to volunteer nor paid you 10!

GERRY LYNCH

Lanark Road

Edinburgh