Writing in The Telegraph, Dalrymple condemns the recent arrests of Lord Mandelson and Prince Andrew in the full glare of publicity as a sinister erosion of the presumption of innocence, which amounts to punishment before verdict.
A man is not guilty because he has been arrested, even if there is much evidence against him, and even if he is very unpopular or otherwise unsavoury. One of the purposes of the criminal justice system is, or ought to be, to obviate the rush to judgment and the sadism that can quickly take hold of crowds or mobs.