There had been much speculation this week in the UK about whether The Sun newspaper would choose to only publish photos of partially-clothed models in the future.

However on Wednesday, the tabloid announced that it would not be putting a ban on the 45-year tradition – and true to form the next day’s paper showed a topless model.

This prompted The Sun’s head of PR, Dylan Sharpe to post the featured image to a variety of Page 3 opponents - including Sky News anchor Kay Burley and UK’s Labour Party Deputy Leader Harriet Harman.

Mr Sharpe has since issued a statement to Buzzfeed News explaining his actions - which had been heavily criticised on social media.

His statement read: “Hi. My name is Dylan Sharpe. Nominally I’m the Head of PR for The Sun, but you may also know me as “c*ckwomble”, “c*nt” or “creepiest guy on Twitter”TM. This is my story…"

And it continued:

“Twitter had decided I was doing it to belittle, to attack, to demean. By 10am I had gained 500 followers, a hate campaign and a parody account.

“By 11am The Huffington Post (whose job, I have learned, is to tell their readers what they should be angry about in The Sun) had written an article about me and how horrible a human I was.

“By midday I was receiving death threats and being told I was the most vile person that had ever lived. I left Twitter alone for a few hours.

“When I returned around 6ish a proper journalist, writing for The Independent, had written about me. Simon Usborne - he normally writes about cycling and the environment - today he’d picked up his pitchfork and joined the hate mob.

“At 11pm the final ignominy. I was backed by a UKIP MEP on Question Time. The nail in my mouldy, hated, coffin.

Topless pictures of models first appeared in The Sun on November 17, 1970, shortly after Rupert Murdoch purchased the publication.