I HAVE just finished reading Jim Patston's mind-blowing letter to his attackers (Mercury, June 15). I'm so sorry you had to go

I HAVE just finished reading Jim Patston's mind-blowing letter to his attackers (Mercury, June 15).I'm so sorry you had to go through the nightmare of being attacked, Jim. You are truly a kind and compassionate husband and father. All the very best to you and your family.JOAN SNAPE - Wyvern Mews, WestonI WAS saddened to read your report, on last week's front page of the Weston & Somerset Mercury, how loving father of three Jim Patston became the victim of an unprovoked attack in Worle.He opened up his heart and wrote to tell us his story, how he feared he would never get home to his wife Tanya and children Iona aged 15, Charlie aged 13, and two-year-old Paddy. What particularly horrifies me, and I'm sure thousands of your readers in Weston, is not just the increase in crime but the gratuitous violence in much of it, particularly by young offenders. For the vast majority of us, the fear of crime ,and in particular violent crime, is as serious as crime itself. What has happened to the Government's key election pledge to be tough on crime, to protect the public from dangerous offenders? For many victims like Jim Patston these are hollow words. I condemn judges who cannot understand that one of the primary roles of the judiciary is to protect the public and not to protect and provide a welfare service for criminals.We need more community police officers on the beat maybe then victims like father Jim Patston would not have to have gone through their living nightmare.D F COURTNEY - Victoria Park, Weston