A regional daily has launched a front page bid to stamp out the abuse of prominent women by men online.

The Northern Echo has made the plea after a man who sent Bishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davison harassing emails over the course of 10 months was spared jail by a judge.

Raymond Batchelor, 42, sent messages to Ms Davison, calling her terms including “b*tch” and “neo-Nazi”, as part of his campaign of abuse.

Batchelor, of Shildon, County Durham, was handed a 12-month restraining order, preventing any contact with the Tory MP which causes harassment, alarm, or distress.

The Darlington-based Echo splashed on its campaign’s launch on Friday, pictured.

In an accompanying editorial, the newspaper said: “Modern methods have made communication extremely easy. You don’t have to go to the inconvenience of buying a stamp to send an email; a few taps of the fingers and you can post the most fleeting of thoughts all over social media for the whole world to see. Perhaps it has become too easy.

“Especially for some men who find it acceptable to post and send the most unpleasant and unwarranted abuse. Their targets are often women with a degree of prominence.

“The Bishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davison is the latest to be on the receiving end of a 10-month torrent of emailed abuse from a 42-year-old male constituent in Shildon.

“He was sentenced yesterday to a curfew, a tag and rehabilitation which may inconvenience him enough to make him think twice in future.

“The sentence comes just a day after Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘Social media provides a vehicle for the most awful abuse of women, misogyny, sexism and threats of violence for women who put their heads above the parapet.’

“For the good of us all, we do need women to put their heads above the parapet and take up leadership positions, and so society as a whole must be serious about stamping out the abuse. Perhaps there is a temptation to ignore it, but there is a real worry about it being an escalatory path, as shown by Wayne Couzens.

“So it can’t be regarded as a bit of a laugh. It has to be attended to quickly by police with the full support of the tech companies who often seem to prefer to turn a blind eye.

“It has to receive appropriate sentences – we shall see if a restraining order really does cause Raymond Batchelor to mend his vile ways. It has to be stamped out.”