Yap Yok Foo's account of the trial of Lee Meng and the history of her appeals makes sad reading. Human justice is imperfect.

Injustice is not confined to Malaya. In England, the cases of the Guildford Four in 1975 and the Maguire Seven in 1976 demonstrate vividly how, between judges, juries and the police, glaring and gross miscarriages of justice can be perpetrated.

The convictions were challenged by a campaign headed by a cardinal, two of the most distinguished former law lords and two equally distinguished former home secretaries. There were continual rejections of applications for review by the courts and opposition from the Home Office of the kind which bureaucrats are skilled in.

It took the campaigners 20 years to get the convictions quashed. The lesson is: never give up o­n the demand for justice.

For those in judicial office, humility is a most desirable quality: the ability to conceive that no o­ne is infallible and our most strongly held views may be wrong.