A worrying trend in recent high-profile murder investigations has been the growing influence of so-called criminal psychologists, who produce a "profile" of the murderer and then send the police off to find someone who fits the pattern.

Murder investigations should be a search for evidence, not a justification of debatable opinions.

Such profiles carry the risk that investigators will look for evidence that "fits" to the exclusion of evidence that does not.

Add to this the public pressure on the police for results and miscarriages of justice are just a step away.

Getting the wrong man in a murder case leaves a killer among us.

-R F Osborne, Rushlake Close, Coldean