THE choice of The Northern Echo's front page picture has again been the subject of debate. A week ago, this column told how a reader had written to say how much he had enjoyed a happy picture showing the children of England cricketers Steve Harmison and Ashley Giles playing at Buckingham Palace.

This week, we have been admonished for a "tasteless" choice of a front page photograph.

The picture was not an attractive image. It showed a repulsive, violent criminal called Colin Meek - pot-bellied, tattooed and in his underwear - being arrested during a police raid at his house in Spennymoor in 1997.

A stark contrast indeed to the picture of childhood innocence at the palace.

One reader, Syd Slawther, wrote to say that the front page showed an "appalling editorial lack of good taste".

He added: "The last thing that your readers want to see is the sagging body of an overweight criminal wearing dreadful underpants and displaying an artless tattoo, with a facial expression so pitiful."

I fully respect Mr Slawther's opinion. However, it is important to explain the background which led to this particular editorial judgement.

The judicial system has been very kind to Colin Meek. In 1999, with a criminal record already well established, he was jailed for four years for wounding a man. He was freed after two-and-a-half years.

Within months, he had sparked national outrage by hitting six-year-old Leonie Shaw while driving a car with defective brakes in Bishop Auckland. He drove off, leaving her to die, and went on the run.

Meek again served only half of his four-year jail sentence and, despite being banned from driving for life, took part in a ram-raid last May.

When he was convicted just over a week ago, police officers were quick to remind us that the degrading picture of his arrest was in our files.

They wanted it to be published again because it showed a big, hard man, with a reputation for spreading fear in local communities, being cut down to size by the camera.

He had left a family bereft of their little girl and stripped local communities of their peace of mind.

The Northern Echo therefore pleads guilty to humiliating Colin Meek with intent; of setting out to shatter his aura of intimidation, and to show him stripped of his dignity.

Soon, he will come back before Judge Peter Fox - the same judge who sentenced him in 1999 and 2002 - to be told his fate.

We hope that this time he will be stripped of his liberty for a more appropriate length of time.

AT a meeting of Crook Writers' Group, a member told us how she is warming to The Northern Echo's more compact Saturday size.

She had been grappling with the broadsheet during the week, with her arms spread wide, when her husband suddenly shouted: "Look out, look out, you're on fire".

The edge of the paper had managed to catch a tea-light candle.

"You wouldn't get that sort of bother on a Saturday," she noted.