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Without having the statistics to back up my beliefs, it is my opinion that there has been a marked increase in media coverage having a negative impact on unbiased judicial processes over the last few years.

I expect I am misremembering to some extent – only remembering the worst cases instead of instances where reporting has been proportionate, factual and justified with the defendant ultimately being convicted, of which I’m sure there are plenty of cases.

However, the media (again, insofar as I have noticed and not off the back of any official statistics) and some social media appear to be increasingly becoming their own platform so societal-convictions; whereby the accused, despite acquittal and having been cleared of any crime and/or offence, remains guilty in the eyes of the wider public and the stain on their reputation can never be removed.

One such instance I remember was of a man in Portsmouth, who was wrongly identified in a newspaper amongst a list or many people as being a paedophile, when he was in fact a pediatrician; while at home with his wife and two primary-school-aged children, a mob of a dozen or so people descended upon his house, smashed windows, made threats, vandalised the family’s car and other property. No one was charged and the family had to relocate out of the area from their home of many years - Not "Open Justice"