Extreme porn has 'normalised' violence against women, leading KC warns

More young men are being tried for sex crimes in the High Court as extreme porn has "normalised" violence against women, according to one of Scotland's top defence advocates.

Tony Lenehan KC also believes a new misogyny bill will help educate men that sex acts, such as strangulation, are illegal and potentially reduce violence against women.

Lenehan told the BBC's Scotcast that there was nothing in the Scottish government's plans that wasn't already capable of being brought before a court.

But he believes the publicity and messaging around the proposed legislation will make men think twice about their actions.

Lenehan said he was seeing an influx of cases in the high courts featuring young men accused of sex crimes.

He said: "There's an unhappy amount of cases of young people who have come into the adult world and started to form relationships in which violent behaviors, coercive controlling behaviors and intimate behaviors which from the outside look a lot like a lack of consent.

"My impression is that with these young people they come into this way of behaving without understanding properly what they're doing."

Lenehan said the prevalence of violent pornography, which is easily accessible on the internet, has "normalised" violence against women.

The leading advocate has dealt with cases across the country featuring offenders from "the best fee-paying schools"

He said: "I suspect the only common thing is the pattern of information from the internet nowadays.

"That has to be the thing which homogenises what we're seeing repeatedly now, particularly in terms of behaviours in the bedroom and the choking and things."

Lenehan said such cases were rare 15 years ago but were "now widespread".

He recently visited Portobello High School in Edinburgh to talk to students about consent and what constitutes a sexual offence.

First Minister John Swinney last week announced plans to recognise misogyny as a "distinct form of prejudice and abuse" as part of his programme for government.

The introduction of a misogyny bill was dropped in May last year as the government said it did not have time before the Holyrood election to draft the legislation to reflect the Supreme Court judgement on the definition of a woman.

But Swinney said he would give the "personal leadership required to tackle the epidemic of male violence against women and girls".

He also announced a public health campaign to challenge misogynistic attitudes in boys and young men.

Lenehan said: "From the point of view of a lawyer, nothing in the misogyny bill will be criminalised that wasn't already capable of being prosecuted."

The KC acknowledged some may ask what the purpose of the new legislation is.

But he explained: "I think the point of it lies in the publicity and the messaging so that people are reminded that these are things which are forbidden.

"All of the things that we can currently prosecute people for don't seem to be causing people to think again about what they do."

Swinney's intervention comes after a series of high-profile cases over the summer.

Stacy Hunter, 35, was murdered by her estranged husband, Jim Mair, at her home near Houston, Renfrewshire, in July.

Mair, who then took his own life, was out on bail at the time after being accused of strangling Stacy.

Last week her brother said some aspects of the proposed legislation were important but added the plans were not "anywhere near good enough".

Sean Hunter told BBC Radio Scotland's Mornings that he did not believe what happened to his sister was down to attitudes.

He told the programme: "I think the main way of stopping that is more action towards reprimanding them, having real consequences to their actions and deterring them for doing that not trying to appeal to their better nature."

Following the case domestic abuse campaigners called for greater use of location tracking technology to monitor high-risk suspects.

The case of Vikki Soloman, 44, who was murdered in July by her ex-partner Lee Greenan has also generated significant media coverage.

Greenan, 46, who was accused of killing Vikki at a house in Edinburgh in July, was later found dead in prison.

Lenehan urged women not to think they have to go along with something they are not comfortable with.

He said one of the reasons he spoke to school pupils was to let them know what the Appeal Court had said.

The KC added: "You literally cannot consent to an assault.

"So if someone is going to take you by the throat and choke you, even if you think that this is flying under the banner of consent, you can't consent to that.

"People need to understand that if that's being suggested that this is the norm, it isn't the norm."

Lenehan highlighted choking and spitting and said the appeal court had made plain that it "simply can't be" part of a consensual relationship.

And the barrister had a stark warning for men.

Lenehan said: "Modern policing and prosecution, and court techniques, are so good that if you carry on like this, you're going get the jail and you're going to get put on the sex offenders register.

"You're never going to go to university; you're never going to go and work anywhere that has an HR department."