I HAD to write in response to your report, 'Street killer gets four years' (June 17).

What sort of a sentence is this, four years for a coward and four- and-a-half and three-and-a-half years for his partners in crime?

They chased a man through York city centre and beat him to death. What an insult to the family of Mr Brolly.

Victims of senseless violence have to be protected. I am sick of the lame excuses made by mitigating solicitors: "My client was drunk/on drugs/or was not shown enough attention as a child".

Four years' for taking a life is disgusting. It's time courts got in touch with public opinion.

G Allinson,

The Green,

Raskelf, York.

Updated: 10:28 Tuesday, June 24, 2003