The death of Jay Cheshire is a desperate story. Seventeen years old, doing A levels, described as “vulnerable and sensitive”, he came under the sort of pressure which has sunk maturer men: he was accused of rape. The police investigation left him, his inquest was told, “distraught”. The allegations weren’t true, and the complainant later withdrew them. But soon after he took his own life.

No suicide has one simple cause. That most private act will always have an element of mystery, and it is dangerously simplistic to say anyone “drove them to it”. But there was an online outcry at Jay’s accuser. “Prosecute her! Name and shame, at least! Why should she get away with this?” The call goes up whenever careers, marriages and