THE story sprawled across our columns like a stain across the page. Even in a world where one has become used to the myriad casual cruelties of the age, there was something about this grubby little tale that lowered the faithometer by several degrees.

A stranger to Worcester asks three men for directions. They feed him false information in order to lure him into an ambush.

The hapless person is frogmarched to a cashpoint, then forced to reveal his pin number and withdraw a substantial amount of money from his account. By the looks of things he was terrified into submission.

This story - thankfully - has a happy ending of sorts. Two of the scumbags who committed this nasty and vicious crime have been sent down. Taxpayers' money well spent, I'd say.

But the significant thing is this. The police got on their tail when one of these thugs started boasting about how they'd forced their victim to part with his money. He'd also been flashing notes about at his abode, which just happened to be the YMCA in St John's.

Now there's a thing... the YMCA. Let's remind ourselves what this acronym stands for - it's Young Men's Christian Association.

My, how things have changed. When I left my home town for good at the age of 20, a YMCA in Preston, Lancashire was my first lodgings before I put down more permanent roots and found a flat.

In those days, a YMCA was a place of sanctuary and shelter for a young bloke on his own in a strange town or city. Now, they appear to be little more than dumping grounds for the flotsam and jetsam of society.

But don't just take my word for it. For there are plenty of people in St John's who are also fed up to the back teeth with the anti-social behaviour of a minority who are not necessarily young, or men... and certainly not Christian.