I NOTE with interest the letter (January 17) from Cathy Baird regarding the possible release of rapist John Worboys. It's the Parole Board's secrecy which undermines the public's trust – such privacy offends the deeply ingrained principle of our law that justice must be done in public. There's a powerful argument that a body that makes decisions about the public safety of releasing the likes of Worboys should be subject to informed public scrutiny.

In fact remission, given for good behaviour, should not be generally available: good behaviour should be presumed and bad dealt with by an extension of sentence. Parole would then become redundant and the Parole Board abolished – an unqualified good, to my mind, since it's usually the least sensible of my acquaintances who sit on them.

Rev Dr John Cameron,

10 Howard Place,

St Andrews.