The fact remains, however, that we don’t know the truth of these accusations against Assange. To make a judgment about what happens between the sheets after consensual sexual activity has started is extremely difficult, since all there is to go on is the word of the accuser and of the accused.

But unlike lesser mortals who entertain these qualms, the feminist Left generally scorns ­trifles such as truth and justice in the face of the all-consuming belief that men are intrinsically violent and that women never lie.

Yet until this past weekend — weeks after the rape allegations emerged — the Left was overtaken by a strange amnesia over precisely this point. Feminist outrage had been silent, replaced by anti-American fervour.

But then The Guardian suddenly flipped over, apparently deciding that ‘all men are rapists’ trumped ‘all Americans are war criminals’.