IS it only me, or do others find it galling when prisoners in court spit and jeer?

In the tragic case of young Joe Medforth, his murderer made obscene gestures to the jury when being led away to the cells (January 13).

This shows the lack of respect and absence of fear from retribution that such people hold for the judicial system, borne out by the fact that both assailants had previous convictions for similar offences.

Such vitriol can also be directed at the families of the victims.

It just seems to rub salt into already raw wounds, particularly for a family struggling to come to terms with the loss of their son.

The courts or Prison Service always seem quick to knock off time from someone's sentence for "good behaviour", presumably to make space for someone else about to start their supposedly long period of incarceration, and so the cycle repeats itself.

What I would like to see is judges immediately adding six months or a year to someone's sentence when they show such contempt. Perhaps that might alter their smug, hard-man attitude.

Or, if I'm being naive, at least it would provide consequences for such actions.

But then again, speaking of naivety, I realise this might offend lily-livered liberals who feel that it might be an infringement of their civil liberties to express themselves in this way - which would never do, would it?

Graeme Rudd,

Kerver Lane,

Dunnington,

York.

Updated: 10:14 Tuesday, January 17, 2006