The actor Noel Clarke has already been subjected to trial by media and found guilty. However this plays out, his career is scuppered. John Leslie could tell you all about that, and he was never ever convicted of any crime.

But you won’t see any of the allegations taken down by social media operators, in spite of the targeted pile-on.

You have to criticise nodding-dog perspectives on things like trans-rights or autism for that.

Predictably, this appalling pseudo-process has been aided and abetted by self-serving, arse-covering, TV broadcaster-sharks. Even the Met Police have weighed in with a fistful of public statements. Another stubbed toe in what has been a shoddy year for the Old Bill.

As for the TV companies who have suspended Clarke’s shows, they need to appreciate that self-serving, faux indignation doesn’t gloss over 20 years – and arguably way longer – of not giving a damn.

And those hopeless tossers at BAFTA can recoil behind their poncey golden masks and do one for the same reasons. It’s one thing to pretend to be on the same level as the Oscars, but quite another to be on the same one as God.

But fundamentally, whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

The seemingly endless stream of bandwagon-jumpers continues unabated. Those who claim that Clarke’s alleged behaviour has been an open secret for 20 years are by definition acknowledging that it is a secret that they helped to keep.

Whoops.

If Clarke is an aggressor, those spineless, told-you-so snakes are squarely in the frame as enablers, and that opens up a stimulating consideration of guilt and degrees thereof for them too.

And it becomes even more fascinating.

If Clarke is ultimately found not guilty, the guilt of those who stood by for so long without acting – in spite of their concerns – does not become expunged in a puff of lavender smoke.

Most of them have, after all, stood by without acting. That’s why they have crappy BAFTAs.

But whatever the outcome of this, our tosspot social media cesspit needs to have a word with itself.

So far, the only award these horrendously snide lizards deserve is a Barf-ta because they make me want to puke.

It’s not about defending Clarke’s actions – that’s a matter for the proper authorities in the fullness of time.

This is about defending fairness and justice.