PRISON officers do an extremely difficult and dangerous job and they are entitled to all the support they can get from the rest of us, including, very definitely, the judiciary.

The not guilty verdict on Kevan Thakrar was an absolute disgrace, a travesty of justice and a shocking betrayal of the whole prison service (Echo, Nov 10). After such an outcome you have to wonder whether the presiding judge was fully competent in the way he directed and advised the jury.

Not many of us could do a prison officer’s job.

They are in constant personal danger and are regularly called upon to handle contingencies and situations at which most of us could only blanch. In this case three of them were badly injured and one may never work again.

In the light of this case, I expect fewer and fewer young people of the right calibre to consider the prison service as a career. Can you honestly blame them?

Tony Kelly, Crook.