The class prejudice inherent in both the legal system and the Press was clearly demonstrated by your front page article on Cassie Watts (The Argus, May 25).

"The tradition of taking the law into your own hands on the

Whitehawk estate is something this court has to stamp out", Judge Issard-Davies tells us.

Thus Cassie and her father were jailed because they are from Whitehawk and the judge has decided he must make an example of people from the estate.

Clearly, the judge implies, such an example would not have been necessary had the incident taken place in, say, upper-middle class Hove.

He goes on to tell us that it is not her muggers but Cassie herself who "began" the "chapter of horror" that ended in a young girl receiving injuries.

How on earth can defending yourself from a gang of violent muggers be construed as beginning anything?

The Argus editorial then went on to castigate Cassie for not calling

the police - which in fact her father did.

With judges like Issard-Davies and the police seemingly using calls from Whitehawk as carte blanche to harass and arrest any random youth in a baseball cap rather than look for the actual criminal, is it any wonder that working-class people have lost faith in the legal system?

Cassie has worked for American Express since she was 16 but will find her criminal record disqualifies her from getting her job back and so faces an uphill battle getting any work at all when she gets out.

She is not the type to fall prey to the temptation of selling the hard drugs she will be exposed to in prison.

Many others would not be so strong. Just who exactly is stoking the "cycle of violence" yourselves and the judge describe?

Socialist Labour Party

-Redvers Road, Brighton