Letter: Trial by jury 'only aspect of system that promotes trust in criminal justice'

Sir: More than 20 years ago the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police stated publicly that the process of justice did not determine truth or dispense justice. Lord Shawcross agreed that it was not a process to determine truth.

Without truth there can be no justice. Defects in a system inevitably cause defects in the product, and shortcomings in frustrated operators, too.

What a disappointment for the British public that the Royal Commission has wasted an opportunity to base British justice, at last, on truth-finding, and fact, rather than on opinion-forming by lawyers in adversarial combat.

Yours faithfully

ROBERT C. PEARSON

Waddingham, Lincs

8 July