IT was with horror and disgust that I read about the impending release of the illegal arms smuggler Peter Bleach.

We can never know how many human lives have been ended and ruined by the actions of this disgrace to humanity.

He is a convicted arms dealer, the lowest of the low, yet his release has been secured at British taxpayers' expense, merely on the grounds, it seems, that he is British.

Of course, we can only speculate as to whether similar publicly-funded efforts would have been made if Bleach had been a working class lad from a council estate.

For the Evening Press to run biographical pieces on Bleach I find disgusting beyond words. This man should rot in jail for ever. I hope he never dares to show his face in this fine city. I have never spat in the face of another person in my life, but there's always a first time.

Claire North,

Suffolk House,

Holgate, York.

Updated: 10:14 Wednesday, February 04, 2004