George Lawlor hounded out of lectures after questioning rape consent workshops

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George Lawlor, 19, driven out of lectures and bars with shouts of ‘rapist’
University student questioned the effectiveness of 'consent workshops'
He now fears for his future at Warwick University after being ostracised
Mr Lawlor fears the furore will affect his academic work and future career

By Eleanor Harding, Education Correspondent For The Daily Mail

Published: 17:06 EST, 22 November 2015 | Updated: 20:40 EST, 22 November 2015

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Called a rapist: Second-year George Lawlor, 19, fears for his future at Warwick University after being ostracised and bullied for challenging a student union drive to hold rape awareness sessions

A student has been driven out of lectures and bars with shouts of ‘rapist’ after he dared to question the effectiveness of ‘consent workshops’.

Second-year George Lawlor, 19, fears for his future at Warwick University after being ostracised and bullied for challenging a student union drive to hold rape awareness sessions.

Writing in a blog, he argued that the overwhelming majority of people ‘don’t have to be taught to not be a rapist’ – and that men inclined to commit the crime would be unlikely to attend such a workshop.

He added that he found his invitation to one of the sessions ‘incredibly hurtful’.

But in the latest example of politically correct intolerance in universities, the student faced a fierce backlash from radical feminists. He was attacked on Twitter and Facebook by student activists branding him a ‘rapist’ and ‘misogynist’.

Mr Lawlor, who studies politics and sociology, fears the furore will affect his academic work – and his future career.

The abuse was so bad that he stopped going to lectures. He told the Daily Mail: ‘I was expecting a reaction, but I was not prepared for just how horrible it was. I remember putting it online and told a few people, who were … saying there would be a backlash.’

In the piece, ‘Why I don’t need consent lessons’, Mr Lawlor said he ‘loved consent’ but that organisers were ‘pointing out the obvious’ and ‘thinking they’ve saved the world’ by making men listen to lectures about rape.

He posed with a sign reading, ‘This is not what a rapist looks like’, to highlight that most right-thinking people know where the boundaries are. But he was called ‘classist’ and ‘racist’ by people who thought he was commenting on what the physical appearance of a ‘typical’ rapist was.

The article was covered on news sites in the US, all over Europe and in Australia.

Mr Lawlor said Warwick student paper The Boar ‘got all their writers together to gang up’ on him with two one-sided articles. Others deleted him as a Facebook contact and sent abusive messages.

He added: ‘In real life, the bus to university was the worst … I heard people talking to each other saying, “I really want to hit that kid”. Walking through campus, people would go silent as I walked past. It was really scary … it got really nasty.’

He said that when he ran in student union elections, someone wrote on his Facebook page, ‘I want to give this guy minus one vote’, followed by another user adding, ‘I want to give this guy minus 100 per cent oxygen’.

Writing in a blog, Mr Lawlor (pictured) argued that the overwhelming majority of people ‘don’t have to be taught to not be a rapist’ – and that men inclined to commit the crime would be unlikely to attend such a workshop

People took to Twitter to express their anger (pictured) after Mr Lawlor wrote a blog about 'consent workshops'

GEORGE LAWLOR: I ALREADY KNOW WHAT IS AND IS NOT CONSENT

An extract from George Lawlor’s blog following his invitation to a consent workshop.

I LOVE consent … but I still found this invitation loathsome … a massive, painful, bitchy slap in the face.

To be invited to such a waste of time was the biggest insult I’ve received in a good few years … It implies I have an insufficient understanding of what does and does not constitute consent and that’s incredibly hurtful …

I feel as if I’m taking the ‘wrong’ side here, but someone has to say it – I don’t have to be taught to not be a rapist. That much comes naturally to me … as I am sure it does to the overwhelming majority of people …

Brand me a bigot, a misogynist, a rape apologist, I don’t care … I already know what is and what isn’t consent. I also know about those more nuanced situations where consent isn’t immediately obvious, as any decent, empathetic human being does …

You’d think Russell Group university students would get that … but apparently the consent teachers don’t have as high a regard for their peers as I do.

I’m not denying there have been tragic cases of rape and abuse on campuses … but do you really think the kind of people who lack empathy, respect and human decency to the point where they’d violate someone’s body are really going to turn up to a consent lesson? They won’t …

It will just be an echo chamber of people pointing out the obvious and others nodding … the whole time thinking that they’ve saved the world.

Mr Lawlor added: ‘There was one guy messaging me on Facebook for over a week, calling me names like racist, rapist … I’ve stopped going to lectures and seminars because of the perceived threat.’

He said he was driven out of a bar in Leamington after some students overheard his friend mention his name. ‘These six guys just crowded round me and started shouting at me … calling me a rapist, a misogynist, and threatening me … I had to get out of there,’ he said.

‘I don’t want to play the victim card, but afterwards I cried.’

Mr Lawlor’s critique of the National Union of Students’ initiative, published on student news website The Tab, came after he was invited to an I Heart Consent workshop via Facebook. The sessions are being rolled out with the aim of enabling students to talk openly about consent. Oxford and Cambridge have scheduled them into freshers’ timetables and other universities are running voluntary workshops.

Mr Lawlor suggested his ordeal will have a chilling effect on other students. He said many had told him they agreed with the article but were afraid to back him publicly.

‘It’s all part of this no-platforming agenda, where they try and create “safe spaces” … but no-one ever thought to question whether I was in a “safe space”,’ he said. ‘People were calling for me to be expelled. You’re only allowed to talk about certain issues, it seems.’

He added: ‘When you search my name all you find is my name next to the word “rapist”. If you want to be a doctor or a lawyer you don’t want to risk having this sort of reputation … so there’s a fear that stops people talking freely.’

Last week, historian David Starkey was banned from a promotional video for Cambridge University after student union officials accused him of having a ‘history of racism and sexism’.

Warwick students’ union recently banned human rights campaigner Maryam Namazie over fears she might criticise Islam. Two red-top tabloids are also banned.