SIR - It's no surprise that Worcester is shaken by the news that the Gillam Street killer is to be freed.

The families and neighbours remain haunted by the terrible memories even after 30 years. McGreavy is infamous and any concept of release is deeply offensive to the families and the wider community who might well ask what the Establishment thinks it is playing at.

True, in many cases, offenders have truly served their sentence, showed remorse and have been successfully rehabilitated. But

McGreavy's crime showed sickening and unfathomable brutality against his child victims. He should remain in prison irrespective of his own progress and consider himself lucky to be alive. A decade earlier he would have faced the gallows.

ANDREW BROWN,

Worcester.