WITH reference to your report headlined “Anger at decision to release police killer” (The Press, October 23), Harry Roberts will long stay in my memory.

He was one of a trio of career criminals who, on that fateful day in 1966, executed three police officers on Wormwood Scrubs Common, which was part of our police district in the Metropolitan Police.

This would have been not unlike any other day spent patrolling in their unmarked “Q” car because of the close proximity to Wormwood Scrubs prison.

This cold-blooded execution of these police officers reverberated throughout the public domain. None more so than the policeman pounding the beat in Wembley. The donations to the police widows-and-orphans' fund at every police station from citizens of London, including the criminal fraternity, was overwhelming.

With the death penalty having been suspended and finally abolished in 1966, these armed criminals who committed premeditated murder by the use of weapons had nothing to lose.

However this highlights that life imprisonment should mean life. After all, the victims and their families have no say and there is no reprieve, only grief for many law abiding citizens.

Kenneth Bowker, Vesper Walk, Huntington, York.