JK Rowling vowed to defy Scotland’s “ludicrous” new hate crime laws in a transgender row.

Activists have been attempting to have the Harry Potter author arrested for calling trans broadcaster India Willoughby a man on social media.

Rajan Barot, a former fraud prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, warned Rowling to “start deleting” ahead of the new legislation coming into effect next month.

He said: “It comes into force on 1 April 2024 and any posts up after that are amenable to prosecution in Scotland.

“You are best advised to delete the posts about India Willoughby as they most likely contravene the new law. Start deleting!”

But she replied on X: “If you genuinely imagine I’d delete posts calling a man a man, so as not to be prosecuted under this ludicrous law, stand by for the mother of all April Fools’ jokes.”

Rowling had referred to Willoughby in a post earlier this month in which she criticised trans women being allowed into women’s changing rooms.

She said: “India didn’t become a woman. India is cosplaying a misogynistic male fantasy of what a woman is.”

Willoughby contacted Northumbria Police to report Rowling’s comments.

The TV personality told Byline TV: “JK Rowling has definitely committed a crime.

“I’m legally a woman. She knows I’m a woman and she calls me a man. It’s a protected characteristic.”

The force dismissed Willoughby’s complaint saying it did not “meet the criminal threshold”.