Outrage at barrister who called Stuart Hall's crimes 'low level'



Barbara Hewson also said aged of consent should be lowered to 13



She described Operation Yewtree arrests as a 'grotesque spectacle'

Claimed disgraced Stuart Hall's crimes were 'low level misdemeanors'



NSPCC said her 'outdated and simply ill-informed' views 'beggars belief'

Barrister Barbara Hewson has claimed the age of consent should be lowered to 13 to protect older men in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex scandal

Stuart Hall’s sex crimes were low-level misdemeanours, a leading barrister claimed yesterday.

In comments that provoked outrage, Barbara Hewson called for the age of consent to be cut to 13 and for an end to the ‘persecution of old men’.

She said Scotland Yard’s Operation Yewtree, which is investigating the crimes of Jimmy Savile and allegations against other celebrities, had ‘nothing to do with justice’.

She added that ‘the post-Savile witch-hunting of ageing celebs echoes the Soviet Union’ and it was not difficult to see why some elderly defendants ‘conclude that resistance is useless’.

Miss Hewson, who is an abortion rights specialist, said the arrests of Rolf Harris, Dave Lee Travis, Jim Davidson and Max Clifford were driven by the need to produce ‘scapegoats on demand’.

But Susan Harrison, 61, who was indecently assaulted by Hall when she was 16, said it was wrong to make light of his crimes.

‘To call them low-level misdemeanours is not only incredibly hurtful to all the victims it is also utterly ridiculous,’ she said.

‘I don’t think Miss Hewson understands what it is like to be on the receiving end of this kind of abuse from a man who is trusted by your family and by society as a whole. What he did to me went on to ruin my life and I am still dealing with the aftermath now and to call it low level is just offensive.’

Alan Collins, of Pannone Solicitors, which represents many of Savile’s and 83-year-old Hall’s victims, called her comments ‘crazy’ and ‘ignorant’.



Hardwicke Chambers, where she is a junior barrister, expressed shock and said they were investigating.

'A grotesque spectacle': Lawyer Barbara Hewson criticised the arrests of celebrities including (clockwise from top left) Rolf Harris, Max Clifford Dave Lee Travis and Jim Davidson, in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex inquiry

Internet bloggers and Twitter users attacked her comments claiming they were ill-informed and ‘victim blaming’.

In an online article in Spiked magazine, Miss Hewson had claimed that ‘touching a 17-year-old’s breast, kissing a 13-year-old, or putting one’s hand up a 16-year-old’s skirt’ were not comparable to cases such as the Ealing Vicarage and Fordingbridge rapes and murders from the 1980s.

She added: ‘Anyone suggesting otherwise has lost touch with reality. Ordinarily, Hall’s misdemeanours would not be prosecuted, and certainly not decades after the event.

‘What we have here is the manipulation of the British criminal justice system to produce scapegoats on demand. It is a grotesque spectacle.’

Miss Hewson, 52, who lives in a £1million home in Islington, North London, yesterday revealed on Twitter that she had received abuse and threats online.



She said of the more offensive comments: ‘So now someone wants me raped and another wants me “hunted into obscurity” – visceral, very nasty stuff.’

Last night she added: ‘Good journalists stand by what they write and so do I. Like Voltaire, we must defend the right to express our opinions. Incidentally I have had a wave of polite emails from strangers saying how much they appreciated my article.’



In the article Miss Hewson called the NSPCC and the National Association for People Abused in Childhood ‘moral crusaders’ and ‘do-gooders’ who had infiltrated Yewtree.



She said the ‘national trawl for historical victims was an open invitation to all manner of folk to reinterpret their experience of the past as one of victimisation’.

Crimes: Scotland Yard's Operation Yewtree, is split into three inquiries into allegations involving deceased presenter Jimmy Savile, involving Savile and others and those involving just others

Peter Watt, director of the NSPCC helpline, said: ‘These outdated and ill-informed views would be shocking to hear from anyone but to hear them from a highly experienced barrister simply beggars belief.

‘Stuart Hall has pleaded guilty to abusing children as young as nine years old; we think most people would agree that crimes of this nature are incredibly serious. To minimise and trivialise the impact of these offences for victims in this way is all but denying that they have in fact suffered abuse at all.

‘What she is saying does not make any sense at all. The abuse causes long-lasting damage to victims.

‘To lower the age of consent would just give the green light to abusers like Stuart Hall and Jimmy Savile to carry on with their crimes.’

In a statement, Hardwicke said: ‘We did not see or approve the article pre-publication and we dissociate ourselves from its content and any related views she may have expressed.’

Among the Twitter users reacting angrily to Miss Hewson’s comments was Sarah Rees who posted: ‘I am guessing you don’t have any 13-year-old daughters, or children to protect. Absolutely shameful.’