Guilty until proven innocent. The tenure of Alison Saunders at the Crown Prosecution Service will be remembered for a monstrous inversion of that fundamental principle of British justice. I began to campaign for Saunders to be sacked after receiving emails from two Telegraph readers, shellshocked mothers whose sons were both wrongly accused of rape and left dangling in that Purgatory of the disbelieved.

“Google my boy’s name, Allison,” urged one, “and you will still see his sweet face next to the word rapist.”

I was also outraged by the case of Paul Gambaccini. The well-loved DJ, the gentlest and most civilised of men, was arrested in 2013 for historical sexual offences following allegations by two men he had never met, who were allowed to remain anonymous. For 12 months, Paul was plunged into a Kafkaesque nightmare, despite there being no evidence against him, and no charge either.

I began getting messages from police officers who had been sent on training courses where they were taught that any woman who said she had been raped must always be believed and referred to as “the victim”. One veteran detective told me he had resigned in disgust after he was reprimanded for pointing out it was customary to conduct an investigation before arresting someone.