A crime is a crime no matter how you categorise it!

Dumbing down crime to try and make some supposedly minor offences sound inconsequential is ruining our country and driving the law abiding mad with anger.

The death of David Askew, a 64 year old man with learning difficulties who was being persecuted in his own home by young thugs, is being talked of as being a result of "anti-social" behaviour.

NO, it is as a result of criminal activity - pure and simple.

No doubt those arrested will be afforded a range of human rights they did not afford to their victim. These people take no responsibility for their actions and yet expect society to bow to them when they demand special treatment. For me, to earn rights in our society you need to take a reasonable amount of responsibility for your actions and this is clearly a principle our authorities have lost complete touch with.

Local Police and Council officials were well aware of the issues faced by Mr Askew but clearly treated them as being a series of minor offences which did not merit intervention. By not treating low level crime as being a precursor to more serious events our authorities let Mr Askew, and all of us, down.

No matter what language you choose to use to describe the events that led to Mr Askew's death our criminal justice system must show no mercy for those neighbours say "tormented" Mr Askew "to death - like bear bating".

The important thing now is to learn the lessons these events teach us and to treat anti-social behaviour as the crime it really is. Mr Askew's memory deserves nothing less.