FROM Judge Paul Hoffman's comments 'Attack shame of campus official', April 14), it would appear he would have preferred not to jail Osvaldo Jose Fuentes-Atton for his attack on a student in a York nightclub.

Judge Hoffman's thinking seems to be that, because Atton is a student and a political activist, the seriousness of his crime is reduced and he should, therefore, serve a lesser sentence than someone who is neither of these.

From being a mitigating factor, I would argue that Atton's educational background exacerbates the offence, and that he should have received a significantly longer sentence than someone who did not have this chance.

He, of all people, should have known better than to carry out an unprovoked attack on an innocent person, using a deadly weapon which could easily have killed.

I write as someone who holds three degrees from three universities, who had to fight hard to be admitted to all of them and who has also been injured in an unprovoked attack.

The law should make it quite clear that anyone who abuses the hard-won chance of higher education through criminal acts of mindless violence should have the book thrown at them - hard.

Leo Enticknap,

Ingram House,

Bootham,

York.

Updated: 12:43 Saturday, April 16, 2005