Dear Editor, I am still amazed at the way Michael Eccles was killed in Lichfield. It harks back to something from Clockwork Orange and oozes of evil in everyway.

I used to live near to the Dimbles, where this murder happened. It was always an area where the best and worst of Lichfield seemed to exist. I never felt comfortable walking round that area, going to my surgery round that area, going to church round that area or shopping round that area, but I did and I can say now that I survived. Yet for years Lichfield was one of the safest areas to live and work and one has to ask the terrible question – what on earth has gone wrong in Lichfield ?

The old saying “evil prospers when good men do nothing” comes to mind in every way regarding this recent tragic incident. I have to say I feel safer living in an inner-city area like Walsall at present than Lichfield, and that is saying something. I hear from local news reports that the area is still experiencing uncontrolled intimidating behaviour, that it is being patrolled heavily by the Staffs police and that those in high positions are monitoring the situation.

Well I hope so and I hope that Lichfield’s MP Michael Fabricant is also monitoring the situation and area and tries to bang a few heads together to get things back on track. This area deserves much better and it would be good to get it to a state of normality again, where people feel safe and comfortable going about their daily business.

What a permanent tribute it would be for the victim Michael Eccles and his dear family, if that area could be seen to turn around for the better

But only those living there, the community, the residents, the churches, the councillors, the MP, the courts, the police, etc can do this and they must have that will to do so, for the sake of future generation.

Both Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and Rope by Patrick Hamilton look at the way civilised behaviour and animalistic behaviour can get blurred in society, so much so that they melt into each others territory and one cannot recognise one from another.

Anthony Burgess based his 1962 fictional account Clockwork Orange on the experiences of witnessing the animalistic behaviour towards a woman in an alley by sailors on leave in New York at the end of WW2.

Those who killed Baby P and Michael Eccles in particular must be forced to see the error of their ways but the way British law is at present, I doubt that is ever going to happen.

To use a crass term at present, British law is an ass and will be for some time, until somebody wakes up quite quickly and smells the coffee.

Ian Payne, Thornbury Rd, Walsall