The worst of role models has become a disastrous hero because our society no longer knows the difference between unacceptable behaviour and criminal behaviour.

Justice has finally been served for Ched Evans and hopefully he will now be able to get on with his playing career, make up for lost time and receive appropriate compensation for five lost years.

However the dark side of this ridiculous case is that the misguided hero worship will now begin in stadiums across the country. Evans will be seen as the man who fought the law and won, a champion for every bloke who ever went on a night out and had drunken, casual sex with a stranger.

In reality, one thing should be made clear. Ched Evans, or at least his immature younger self, is not a good guy. This is a man who cheated on his girlfriend and whose brother filmed his friend Clayton MacDonald having sex with the accuser.

To speculate about what would have happened had the case not come to court, it is very possible that his loyal partner, and now fiancee, Natasha Massey would have broken up with him, and almost certain that his name would have been jeered by football fans across the land. And that, rather than two and a half years behind bars, would have been appropriate punishment.

Now, at Bramall Lane, where Evans used to bang in the goals for Sheffield United, it will be Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill who is viewed with disgust for sticking her nose into the club’s transfer policy and making it politically impossible for them to sign a player who may have secured promotion from League 1.

Then there is Ched Evans’ accuser. A teenager with her whole life ahead of her was led to believe she was a rape victim, with nobody caring less about how traumatic that must be in itself.

She will never be able to live a normal life again and already hundreds of comments can be seen on social media wishing her dead. There is a misconception that she deliberately lied about being raped, yet she never made such a suggestion and it was the police who convinced her to press charges.

To put it simply, Evans, his family, the accuser, Ennis-Hill and many more have all been let down by the insatiable desire of North Wales Police to secure convictions for sex offences.

And this is the case all across the country. For example, Nottinghamshire Police have this year classified wolf-whistling at women as a hate crime purely for the purpose of driving up convictions and pleasing their political masters. It is absolutely absurd yet the only articles I have seen from newspapers of all political persuasions are in praise of the decision.

How has it come to this?

Well, the answer is we now live in a society that refuses to accept that bad things happen. Every day the line between unacceptable behaviour and criminal behaviour is being gleefully rubbed out by politicians who are led by the media.

Whether it’s the government, the Football Association or the police, it is becoming more and more difficult for public bodies to do their jobs impartially amid cries of ‘something must be done!’.

The sad fact of life in Britain today is this situation is not getting better, it’s getting worse. We are on the verge of bringing children up to believe that seeing the good in people will get you nowhere in life.

Make no mistake, the media and politicians will not change unless the people change.

A clear message should be sent that the public will not stand for any more important decisions being influenced by fake outrage. How can we do this? By doing the most difficult thing of all. That is, doing nothing.

Next time you feel affected by a story with no impact on your personal life, think twice before sending that angry tweet. Because not everything bad or unfortunate has to be ‘a disgrace’. Sometimes it can simply be ‘a mistake’.