14 JANUARY 1989, Page 22

Plodspeak

Sir: Re Auberon Waugh's complaints (Another voice, 17 December), another for your list of ridiculous statements (from Det Chief Supt McFadden, head of Surrey CID, after the Surrey stabbings and mur- .der): 'They showed violence in the ex- treme. It was gratuitous violence. I do not see how anyone could justify what these men did.'

How could anyone possibly wish to justify one man stripped, bound and left to die and another knifed in his own home trying to protect his elderly parents? Are we all quite mad? — or are wo so desensitised that we take violence to be a norm?

J. Benn St Andrew's House, 113 Mycenae Road, Blackheath,

London SE3