THIS week it was my intention to write about England's loss in the World Cup and its effect on the argument for Bermuda remaining a British colony.

A tenuous link from the start, I abandoned that plan on Tuesday, fuelled by new fodder. It seems Premier Alex Scott and Public Safety Minister Randy Horton visited The Swizzle on Monday, eager to show Government's "zero tolerance" for a drive-by shooting outside the South Shore pub.

Good for them. Except the incident took place the previous Thursday and neither the victim nor his attackers were present for the surprise visit. Still, it must have given the 18 year old ? presumably then in hospital ? great hope to learn that Government intends to "use every resource available to find (his attackers) and bring them to justice".

The visit most certainly gave encouragement to the owner of The Swizzle, Jay Correia. He praised the politicians for the support they offered, saying: "They said they were doing everything possible to bring the crime to a conclusion. They basically gave me some words of encouragement and let me know that they were as concerned about it as I was."

If last week's revelation to the by Opposition MP Michael Dunkley and criminal lawyer Mark Pettingill is true, at least 75 per cent of our officers have less than three years' experience in uniform. How much confidence, therefore, should we hold in that promise?

It was nearly three months ago that officers vowed to deliver "the highest attention within the Service" after a gunman opened fire in the Swinging Doors night club and shot three people. As far as I am aware, no one has gone to trial for the incident. The initial suspect was in fact released without being charged.

Informed of the shooting while in Hawaii attending the Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc.'s annual conference, Mr. Scott said he had actually considered cutting short the trip because of it, but was heartened by the fact that violent incidents in Bermuda were at a six-year low.

"One shooting does not a catastrophe make," he told . "One incident is too many but it does not undo the total product."

Ten years ago there was an incident that could have undone the "total product". A 17 year old was brutally murdered while visiting the island.

This week we learned that Government awarded the girl's family less than $3,000 for their pain and suffering. As reported by the, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board felt $2,840.63 was sufficient compensation for Rebecca Middleton's rape and murder. Her distraught family had submitted a claim for $100,000, the maximum allowed for pain and suffering.

I am sure there are many who feel that the case has been tried to a result and the family should simply live with that ruling. I am sure there are many who think the family should get on with their lives, that their anguish is no different to that of many grieving parents and relatives of murdered Bermudian children who feel justice has not been served to their satisfaction.

I'm sure everyone can empathise with the agony Rebecca's family and friends suffered upon her death but perhaps we'd better understand their insistence for justice if we considered the case from their perspective.

The pair believed responsible were captured after the horrific rape and murder of their child. What many assumed would be a straightforward trial was botched. And then, according to Rebecca's father Dave, the island's former Attorney General, Dame Lois Browne Evans, insisted that Bermuda didn't owe the Middleton family a thing.

Said Mr. Middleton: "The whole legal system from the Police Department through to the Attorney General's Department seemed to be so lax. Could it have been a mess-up worse than that? I don't think so."

One could write his words off as those expected from a grieving father had his opinion not been backed up by the British Commissioner of Police at that time, Colin Coxall.

He said Bermuda should be "ashamed" of the way its judicial system handled the case, that it was "outrageous" nobody was convicted for the killing and recommended Bermuda revisit the evidence.

"I believe it's still not too late," he said. "Cases of rape and serious sex assault are now regularly being solved in the UK many years later as a result of developments in DNA testing.

"I believe that a sufficiently skilled investigation team of international standing ? either from the FBI in the US or from British Police Service ? could re-investigate that case in its entirety and even now bring it to a successful conclusion."

With Canadians reiterating their 1998 call to boycott Bermuda, perhaps it would serve us all well if the Premier and Mr. Horton had an honest and sympathetic discussion with the Middleton family and did as Mr. Coxall suggested.