When I now watch the news on television without voicing or even thinking about that purse I am making a

When I now watch the news on television without voicing or even thinking about that purse, I am making a small contribution to my own rehabilitationPatrick Maguire, 37, was sent to an adult prison for four years at the age of 14 for his alleged involvement in IRA bombings. Banish from our own hearts and minds the uncharitable rumours, the urban myths and the instinctive suspicions, however fascinating, and stick to innocent until proved guilty. Diana died in the same week as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, yet it was Diana who was sanctified by popular acclaim. The choice of heroes as well as villains, it appears, is arbitrary.And so the chance of falling victim to a whispering campaign effectively haunts us all. When I sensed the mud was sticking to my name, I used to lie awake at night wondering how I and others like me could wash the slate clean. The greatest protection surely lies in that old adage, do as you would be done by.

Some lucky souls get fixed in the imagination as whiter than white and no amount of evidence to the contrary can dislodge them, as Diana, Princess of Wales, found in life and in death. "It tends to be balanced by a corresponding impulse to make saints," says Miles. The cast list of sinners by popular acclaim is usually accompanied by a smaller group of manufactured saints. They will never escape the whispers."The urge to scapegoat is universal and very powerful," according to the historian and sociologist, Doctor Rosalind Miles, "to believe the worst and to put on to others flaws that we probably recognise in ourselves but don't want to admit to." But there is a more positive flip side to this, she points out.

As Nick Ross always tells those who tune in to Crimewatch, you're much more likely to be murdered by someone you know than a stranger.The result is a kangaroo court in every sitting room. With Tracey Andrews, all bruises and dishevelled blond hair as she sobbed about the road-rage murder of her boyfriend, the suspicion that there was something that didn't quite add up was subsequently vindicated by the courts, but not until months after the public had reached its verdict. Yet there have been plenty of others who failed the lynch-mob test, yet still walked free on the instructions of a judge. First watch the grieving murder victim's relative on the news appealing for help in finding the killer of their loved one, and then decide whether or not he or she did it. There is a new parlour game, an odd cocktail of Cluedo and Hangman. OJ Simpson was found not guilty in a criminal court of murdering his wife and her friend, but guilty in a subsequent civil case for damages - where there is a lower burden of proof.This infectious disregard for the most basic principle of justice - innocent until proved guilty - is now going one step further, without even waiting for any charges to be pressed. The Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six, the Maguire Seven and a whole host more have in recent years demonstrated that the official outcome cannot always be regarded as the last word.

Further muddying the waters, there has even been the spectacle of two different courts considering the same case and coming up with contradictory judgments. Often it's better just to ignore them, or attack it from another angle, like a series of newspaper interviews."The public is also sometimes rightly distrustful of court verdicts. I tend to advise clients not to get involved in court battles unless they feel the accusations are totally damning to their careers. And, even though he received substantial damages, the whole very public spectacle left him pounds 50,000 out of pocket."Trying to convince the public via a court that an injustice has been committed is both difficult and dangerous," says the publicist, Max Clifford.

"People read what's said in court, weigh up the evidence and come to their own verdict regardless of what the court says. Linford Christie, the Olympic gold medal sprinter, was accused in a small circulation and now defunct satirical magazine, Spiked, of taking performance-enhancing drugs. He sued, won the action, but only after his sporting pedigree had been questioned in every newspaper in the land. A witch-hunt was soon underway and in a matter of hours it smoked out Dougie Walker who now promises to fight to clear his name.Law, in theory, should be the ultimate saviour of the reputation of those unjustly accused, but the expectation that the courts can, at a stroke, halt whispering campaigns has often proved mistaken. It was a courageous move, but the appetite for a name was insatiable. Conscious no doubt of the nightmare endured by 800m runner Diane Modahl when she was accused - unjustly - of drugs offences, last month the athletics authorities refused to identify another runner who had come under suspicion.