SCOTTISH crime writer Val McDermid has condemned a restraining order handed down to a woman who attacked her at a book signing as being worth even less than "a slapped wrist".

Ms McDermid, who appeared last night at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, reacted after Sunderland Magistrates' Court sentenced widow Sandra Botham, 64.

She was convicted of common assault and given a 12-month community order banning her from going anywhere near the writer following the incident at Sunderland University last year. She was also ordered to pay £50 compensation and a £60 victim surcharge.

Botham, 64, threw ink over the author's face after approaching her to autograph a copy of her bestselling non-fiction book, A Suitable Job for a Woman.

She claimed Ms McDermid had ridiculed her late husband in print, shouted obscenities and bizarrely dubbed her "the female equivalent of Jimmy Savile".

Ms McDermid said: "It's an interesting message from Sunderland magistrates. Throw a bottle of ink over someone, treat the legal process with contempt and get a sentence that doesn't even amount to a slapped wrist.

"The law is supposed to protect the citizen."

Botham, who disguised herself in a blonde wig and a hat to carry out the assault, has nursed a grievance at the 1995 book's apparent depiction of late husband George, a 43-year-old joiner who was shot dead on the doorstep of his family home in Ryhope, Sunderland in May 1990.

Botham claimed Fife-born McDermid had got her facts wrong and caused tremendous upset to her family.

She has announced plans to appeal against the "outrageous" sentence, having earlier lambasted proceedings as a "kangaroo court".

Botham, of Sunderland, said: "The chapter talks about my husband's murder as if it lacked emotion or pain.

"It made a laughing stock out of him when he deserves dignity and respect.

"It also refers to me as the Michelin Man, which is just absolutely horrible."

The book explores the lives of real-life female private eyes in the UK and US.

Meanwhile, John Rebus, the famous Scottish detective inspector, will not return to TV screens until a company can convince its creator, Ian Rankin, that it will receive the same treatment as Wallander or The Killing.

Rankin, speaking at the book festival last night, said the rights for the television version of his successful detective novels had reverted to him and he wanted to see his stories translated to the screen with the lengthy running times of the popular Nordic Noir shows.

Rebus has been adapted for television on STV. The first series starred John Hannah in the title role, with the second and ­subsequent series starring Ken Stott.

However, in a session dedicated to the new Rebus novel, published in November and titled Saints of the Shadow Bible, Rankin said he was waiting for the right offer.

He also said he did not know whether there would be another Rebus novel, adding: "As I am sitting here, I don't know whether he has any more novels in him."

On the TV versions, he said: "I think we found the right actor, but we didn't find the right format.

"ITV had it, with Hannah it was two hours, and it had 100-page scripts for a three hundred page book, which wasn't bad.

"Then with Ken Stott, they went to an hour which is 45 minutes without adverts ...and you lose the nuance, the sense of place, any character development, you lose all the stuff you get with three hours or six hours or ten hours or twenty hours which is what you get with these European and Scandic crime stories.

"I was very frustrated by that. When the rights lapsed they wanted to renew it, and I said, 'No, you cannae'.

"I am waiting for a TV company, whether it is French, Scandinavian, British or whatever to say to me: we will do it as three hours or six hours or ten hours and we will do it properly."