The Bar Council has warned that defence lawyers may feel inhibited about taking on high-profile trials that could potentially see them vilified by the media, following coverage of the trial of Levi Bellfield last week.

Jeffrey Samuels QC was subjected to a torrent of abuse on social networking sites and in some newspapers for his defence of Bellfield, who was found guilty of killing teenager Milly Dowler.

Details were revealed of the location and value of Samuels’s home, while one columnist said the Dowler family may have been upset by his ‘superficial physical resemblance’ to Bellfield.

A Bar Council spokesman said there are now fears that the long-established ‘cab rank rule’ of allocating cases to barristers could be threatened by the backlash.

A spokesman said: ‘We would never want to see a situation where lawyers felt they couldn’t represent people because they are to be vilified by the public.’

Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC suggested that the Bellfield trial raised ‘fundamental questions about the treatment of victims and witnesses in the court process’.

However, the Bar Council said now is not the time for reform of court procedure.

Bar Council chair Peter Lodder QC, a criminal law barrister, said he had no concerns over the nature of Samuels’s questioning of the Dowler family during the trial.

He noted that the defence made was ruled admissible and relevant by the judge.

Lodder added: ‘Whilst, naturally, our sympathy is with the family of the victim, we must be careful to recognise that the right of an accused person to defend himself is absolute.’