YOUR article ‘ Syd the vigilante has been let off’ (SA, February 2), did not come as a surprise. However, it may have been better if Mr Davis had declined to give the county court judge an undertaking not to protect his property in future and let the matter come to court. The authorities may then have witnessed an outcry at the injustice of it all and, I suspect, overwhelming support for Mr Davis.

Your article did not say whether anyone else had to give the judge an undertaking; the out-of-control youths, their inadequate parents or even perhaps, the unresponsive police. I wondered what the judge would do if the same gang spent three hours attacking his house and terrorising his family without the police coming to his aid. But then I realised that was about as likely to happen as the Queen making use of her pensioner’s bus pass.

DON REEVE Okus Road Swindon