24 FEBRUARY 2007, Page 16

No justification for torture

From PL. Nock Sir: On the subject of torture (Meeting Professor Torture', 17 February), I would like to make two points. First, that it's difficult to see how a so-called Christian state could practise such infamy. Second, I think it was Cicero who said, rightly, that torture is an unreliable method of eliciting information, since its victims will naturally say what they think their interrogators wish to hear — which may not necessarily be the truth. Is this really how we think civilised states ought to conduct themselves?

EL. Nock Windermere, Cumbria