IT is a fact of life that people are more inclined to moan about something than say well done, so dealing with complaints is a common task for editors.

Sometimes, the complaints don't come as any surprise because of the controversial nature of a particular article, or because we've got something wrong. Other times, complaints are unforeseen, such as the anguished letter which arrived on my desk last week.

We had published a seemingly innocuous article about the success of a football coaching project to help drug addicts. It was the result of a press release from the Drug Interventions Programmes in Darlington and Durham, which came with a photograph of those who had taken part in the project.

No details were supplied about those on the picture and the mistake was to publish it without checking who they were.What we didn't know was that one of those smiling happily in the picture was a man who had recently been released from jail after serving a sentence for killing his girlfriend.

"Do you not consider the stress and trauma that you inflict on innocent people when you choose to print 'success' stories?' asked the letter from the victim's family.

I have apologised to them, saying that I believe it is right to promote successful anti-crime initiatives, but that greater consideration should be given to the victims of crime. I have passed that message on to the organisation which sent out the press release and warned staff at The Northern Echo about the dangers of publishing pictures of people without knowing who they are.

COMPLAINTS were anticipated about Thursday's front page story revealing the existence in Darlington of a bizzare sect which treats women as sex slaves.

We revealed that the house at the centre of the story had been raided by police and that the so-called "master" of the sect had been banned from his local butcher's shop because he had gone in with one of his 'slaves' on a dog leash. He said that this had particularly upset him because the shop sold the best bacon in Darlington.

I felt that the story was entirely justified because people - particularly parents - needed to be alerted to the activities of this disturbing organisation. However, I thought some readers might be offended by the salacious nature of the story and the pictures which were published of one of the shackled 'sex slaves'.

In the end, I only received one complaint from an anonymous male caller who slammed the phone down after shouting: "Is that the editor? This story about sex slaves... there's no way that butcher sells the best bacon in Darlington." I don't know if he was a rival butcher or just someone who really likes his bacon.

FINALLY, a complaint of our own. We received a letter the other day from a local branch of the Philatelic Society, asking us to preview a forthcoming meeting at Darlington Cricket Club.

It came with a demand from the Royal Mail for £1.02 excess postage because the letter wasn't properly stamped.