Barbara Hewson Says She Has Been Threatened Online After Controversial Article

Barrister 'Threatened With Rape' After Controversial Article
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PA

A barrister who sparked fury by claiming for the age of consent to be lowered to 13 says she has received threats online.

Human rights lawyer Barbara Hewson wrote on Twitter that "someone wants me raped and another wants me 'hunted into obscurity'."

It comes after she wrote an article criticising the police investigation triggered by the Jimmy Savile scandal, saying she did not support "the persecution of old men".

She claimed Operation Yewtree posed a "far graver threat" to society than Savile, and said the "low-level misdemeanours" Stuart Hall was charged with were "nothing like serious crime".

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Hewson received abuse online

On Twitter on Thursday, she also attacked the National Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Children, the charity she criticised in her controversial blog.

Hewson claimed the charity had tried to persuade her to amend the article, which she branded a "moral crusader" in her blog.

Her employer, Hardwicke Chambers, said it was "shocked" by her views.