WE’RE all learning to do without a lot of things, but boom or bust, society will always need its scapegoats.

There’s something strangely comforting to humans to know that no matter how big a mess you’ve made of things, someone has done even worse – and is being made to pay for it.

In the 21st Century’s equivalent of the stocks this week is the barrister Robert Colover, who, stupidly and inexcusably, described a 13-year-girl who had been sexually abused by a man three times her age as predatory.

Mr Colover has clearly spent the past 18 months in a cave as he appears not to have heard of the crimes of Jimmy Savile or Stuart Hall or grasped their significance. He can’t have had a dictionary in his retreat either as he seems to have forgotten what the word victim means as well.

He should be sent away on a substantial – and unpaid – holiday to reflect on his foolishness, because what he has said simply won’t do from a well-paid lawyer in the public service. Then, suitably chastened, he can get back to a job for which we must assume he has some talent.

It is hard to sympathise with someone capable of such callousness – imagine if he had castigated a pensioner for being too weedy and frail to stand up to a mugger. But I am increasingly uneasy at the tabloid-driven and largely-manufactured outrage that goes with cases like these.

One of the problems is that the closer you get to them, the less clear they become.

Not so long ago, the hounds were on the scent of Teesside judge Peter Bowers, who – again inexcusably – described a burglar as having courage.

My problem is that I know him to be a good and sensible judge and I know, too, if he had said that burglars, like many criminals, show audacity and even boldness, it would not have merited a line in the national press. He was wrong and deserved to be reprimanded, but were the incessant calls for his head to roll and his resignation letter to be written in blood justified? I don’t think so.

The author Gore Vidal said it wasn’t enough for him to be successful to be truly happy – his friends needed to fail as well.

It seems at times that it isn’t enough for society to correct people when they’re wrong.

They have to be hung out to dry, pilloried and subjected to ferocious personal abuse.

I’ve learnt about this abuse the hard way.

Yesterday, the Middlesbrough Community Pride Festival returned after a two-year gap.

The festival celebrates the place of lesbian, gay, transsexual and transgendered people in our town. When it was first launched, I backed it vocally and enthusiastically.

I’ve not led a sheltered life but I was not prepared for the torrent of personal abuse on the phone, by email and letter that I received.

A lot of it was really unpleasant. What made it worse was that it came from people who no doubt regarded themselves as respectable citizens – and God-fearing ones, too, as a lot of them made it clear that while I was going to be given a hard time in this life, things were going to get a lot hotter in the hereafter.

So, now I tend to stand back a little rather than join the rush to condemn. A slip of the tongue, a momentary misjudgement, or even just defending an unpopular or controversial cause can have dire consequences these days.

We should remember there is still a difference between being in a majority and being right.