Prosecutor Calls 13-Year-Old Abuse Victim 'Predatory'

Britain's Crown Prosecution Service is in damage control mode today, after one of its prosecutors sparked a public outcry with comments out of the Humbert Humbert school of law. In a sentencing hearing on Monday, CPS prosecutor Robert Colover said that a 13-year-old girl abuse victim "is predatory in all her actions, and she is sexually experienced." Her attacker, 41-year-old Neil Wilson, got off with a suspended jail term, after admitting to sexual activity with a child and making extreme pornography, the BBC reports.

Public outrage predictably ensued. A Change.org petition urging the CPS to investigate has as of this writing garnered almost 35,400 signatures. Today, CPS said Colover's language was of "real concern," and said it will keep Colover off sexual assault cases until it finished investigating, the Independent reports. Authorities are also considering complaints against the judge; the Attorney General's Office said the sentence had been "possibly unduly lenient." (More sexual assault stories.)