WE object to the sensationalist journalism which disgraced the front page of the first Friday edition of the Bury Times in 2001 ("Joan (67) in a spin over her washer man").

We have no connection to any party mentioned in the court report and we do not condone the behaviour of which Mrs Heywood was found guilty.

However, we do most vigorously object to the vulgar manner in which the Bury Times reported the case. It is obvious to us that you have used Mrs Heywood as a "headline victim".

The article displays a lack of journalistic integrity and moral concern for any consequences that could arise from your exploitative publishing of the name, address, photograph and other personal details of Mrs Heywood, an obviously distressed, elderly woman.

Previous New Year editions of the Bury Times have joyfully announced the borough's first birth of the year. This year that item appears on page three.

Why didn't you see fit to make a headline of Elisabeth Lucas's unusual birth date of 01.01.01? Her safe arrival would have been a far more worthy choice for a community newspaper.

But you chose to greet the New Year with a headline and article that was nothing short of derisive and opprobrious in tone.

ANGELA, PATRICK, SINEAD

and MARY GRACEY,

Harwood Walk,

Tottington.