Sir, - The public humiliation of a teenager on the main street of our capital city last Saturday as an "alternative sentence" was Dickensian and shameful.
In ordering the young man to stand for four hours with a placard displaying an apology for urinating in public, the judge concerned crossed the line between the constructive censure and pointless degradation of a first-time offender.
In a country trying to come to terms with the abuse of so many of its young people whilst in the care of the state, it is a disturbing development. - Yours, etc.,
Mark Howard, Nth Circular Road, Dublin 7.