LETTERS : Marriott has been made a scapegoat while the real culprits fl ee

From Mr Lewis Jukes Sir: Escaping from Parkhurst prison was at one time hazardous.

Early in 1947, while serving on the destroyer HMS Myngs, we had left Portsmouth for Portland and a lookout saw a man waving from a marker buoy in mid-Solent. A boat was lowered and he was returned to us in a sorry state. After the surgeon's examination, he was admitted to the sick bay. Signals revealed he was probably an escapee from Parkhurst, which proved to be correct.

He had taken a small boat to row to the mainland, but the boat leaked badly and finally sank; he just made the buoy where he had spent many hours cold and wet.

He was strapped into a Neil Robertson stretcher after being cared for by the sickbay staff and delivered, quite recovered, to the police at Portland on our arrival.

Yours sincerely, LEWIS JUKES Bromley, Kent 9 January