News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

If social media has done one thing, it’s proved there is always one person who’ll defend you.

That person may live under a bridge gnawing mutton bones while their personality disorders fight it out, but no matter. They’re on the team.

There’s some sort of maths involved as well, because the more deserving of criticism Person X might be the more rabidly they will be defended by idiots.

Take footballer Ched Evans, for example.

Here is a man who admits having sex with a 19-year-old woman who, a court found, was too drunk to remember it.

This is rape. She was past the point of consent.

Police officers carried out interviews and thought it was rape. CPS lawyers reviewed the paperwork and thought it was rape.

A jury of 12 heard all the evidence and thought it was rape. An appeal court judge thought it was rape.

But there are a surprising number of people who weren’t there yet somehow know better. They can even justify hounding the victim.

It makes you wonder just what other indefensible things people will defend once they feel anonymised or part of a group.

(Image: PA)

If Jimmy Savile were still alive when the allegations against him were first broadcast, would they have trashed his accusers as slags, drunk or unshaggable?

When and if Rolf Harris is released, will they launch an e-petition to get him his old job back on children’s TV?

And what about a case that is not about sex, which can often be a grey area, and is clearer? Something with photographs. Witnesses. A confession.

Surely, you’d think, if someone’s caught on camera committing a crime and the perpetrator admitted their guilt, there’s no way to defend it.

Meet 19-year-old scaffolder Michael Baptist, who was photographed punching a young woman in the face in Newcastle’s Bigg Market on New Year’s Eve.

The pictures are pretty clear – he definitely did it.

The main witness is a photographer for a local news agency who had been commissioned to get some shots of revellers.

He said: “There was a noisy row going on between two men and two women as people flocked out of pubs and nightclubs just after midnight.

“This girl pushed the bloke and he immediately hit the deck. Seconds later, he sprang to his feet and punched her as hard as he could in the face.”

(Image: North News)

So the witness is pretty clear – he did it, and used a right hook to respond to a shove.

Later Michael’s dad said his son was “distraught, beside himself, he has not been able to sleep all night”.

Accompanied by his parents, Michael went to a police station and accepted a police caution for assault.

To get a caution, you have to admit guilt. Michael had to confess to assault.

He has not argued it, claimed self defence, or insisted on a trial to prove his innocence. He knows it was wrong, and he’s done the right thing.

So why defend it? Indeed, HOW could anyone logically do so?

Emails to the Daily Mirror after we published the pictures include: “Will you please stop pushing this feminist agenda you misandric shills?

"Is it really that difficult to understand that this man was completely within his rights, and the girl involved hopefully learnt a valuable lesson.”

Then there was this: “The only shocking thing about this article is the fact that you wrote it in favour of the pathetic wildebeest that was clearly at fault in this incident… talk s*, get hit.”

And this: “Is this not simply an act of retaliation? He hit her once, didn't pursue her after the attack and there seems to be little reason for the 'shove' in the first place."

And this: “If you are big enough to dish it out you are big enough to get it back. End of.”

(Image: North News)

Let’s take this one bit at a time, shall we?

Two men and two women had an argument on a pavement. They were probably tipsy

One woman seems to have shoved one bloke. She is stocky but he is about a foot taller than her and she’s probably in heels. For him to “hit the deck” she would have needed a run-up or for him to be unsteady to start with.

It was wrong of her to shove him. It’s technically an assault. But it was, according to the witness, just a shove.

From the pictures he appears almost unhurt. They show some grazes on his face and the witness states he immediately sprang to his feet. As assaults go, it looks minor.

He then walloped her on the nose. As assaults go, it’s serious. A higher level of violence was unleashed, blood was spilled.

The law on self defence states: “It is both good law and good sense that a man who is attacked may defend himself… he may do, but only do, what is reasonably necessary."

It is not reasonably necessary to stop someone shoving you by smacking them in the face. He could have grabbed her arms, walked away, or called over one of the many police officers around the place.

He wasn’t thinking. He pulled back his arm and let fly without engaging brain. He had more physical power, height and reach than her, and it was excessive.

All those who defend this are worse than he was, because they’re not engaging brain while entirely sober.

Oh, and 10: The Mirror newsroom has more men than women in it. Misandry is not exactly a problem.

I wonder how many of those who defend Michael Baptist’s crime – a crime he admits and has shown remorse for – would defend it if it was their wife or daughter he’d walloped.

And how many would tell their mum it’s acceptable.

But here’s a thing, and it’s worth thinking about.

It is not something we are born with, this hatred for strangers.

This video of four boys aged seven to 11 proves it – asked to slap a girl, they react with shock and refuse.

One says: “Girls shouldn’t be hit, not even with a flower.”

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

We are born capable of empathy and as boys – and girls – grow up, we somehow lost it. We decide hitting each other is fine.

That’s why a poll showed 45% of people think it is acceptable for a man to punch a woman; it’s why the girl shoved Michael, and why he punched her back.

It’s why there’s wars, and two women killed by their partners every week, and why police are called to domestic abuse incidents once every minute.

We find it easier not to think too hard, to go with the herd rather than point out the herd is wrong.

That tolerance to the intolerable is why 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men are victims of violence in their homes.

It doesn’t get taught in school, parents don’t warn their children.

And they grow up to be Michael Baptist, “a good kid” according to his dad but one who nevertheless has ended up walloping a woman for little cause.

There is always someone who will defend anything. But if they’re on your side, your side’s losing.