Assaults on police

SIR – When I became a magistrate, any defendant who assaulted a police officer by spitting (report, September 26) was almost guaranteed a prison sentence. As times moved on, magistrates were shoehorned into guidelines with little discretion, and we could no longer protect the guardians of our society.

I would welcome a move back to the days when justice protected victims, rather than mollycoddled defendants. John Fassenfelt JP

Borden, Kent