SO IF you have a good degree of intelligence, being sent to prison could ruin your chances of a gifted career (Oxford Mail, September 26)?

Lavinia Woodward stabs her boyfriend in the leg and hand and is spared a custodial sentence because she is gifted and if she is sent to prison it could harm her chances of a lucrative career as a heart surgeon.

She is a privileged person with wealthy parents and apparently they own a £1.5m villa in Italy and she spent time there whilst on remand and also a fourweek stint in a rehab clinic.

She is a very fortunate young lady to have parents who are financially able to support her daughter and obviously the rehab would have been paid for, and the time she spent at her family’s villa must have been a reward for her rehab treatment.

Now another person, male or female, appears in court for stabbing their partner in the leg and hands.

It’s their first offence and they are of previous good character.

They also happen to be drug-free, but maybe they have had a few drinks.

They get a custodial sentence of, let’s say six months.

Could they appeal, citing Woodward’s case and sentence? Could the prosecution appeal against her sentence as too lenient?

They should.

BRIAN GIBBS

Hanney Road Steventon