What a sordid insight is afforded by the recent court case in which Gary Whibley was convicted of causing a friend's death through dangerous driving.

The teenagers involved can hardly be described as materially deprived, since they drive cars and can afford drunken sprees in Brighton's bars and clubs. Yet they are clearly terribly deprived of something.

Unfortunately, I doubt whether those involved in this case are unique.

Our society seems to be breeding a generation that has all the gadgets, every opportunity for hedonistic self-indulgence, but which is deprived of all sense of human values.

-Bryan Childers, Marine Parade, Brighton