Adam Trimingham writes very good sense about the murderers of children (Argus, July 27). All power to his probing pen.

Yes, half a dozen children a year are killed annually by strangers, who can generally be assumed to be paedophiles. Yet ten times as many are the victims of members of their own families, very often of their fathers. This is in a society where politicians are constantly praising the virtues of the family.

While naming and shaming of paedophiles can do little to save many children, it is more likely, as the police recognise, to drive paedophiles underground.

Let us hope the killer of Sarah Payne is quickly apprehended, tried and sentenced and never released while a danger to anyone. But don't let us imagine we shall end the killing of children simply by returning to capital punishment. America is in an orgy of executions now and Americans continue to kill more children, and adults, than we do.

-Peter Avis, Hollingdean Terrace, Brighton