A rancid melody has been directed at Azeem Rafiq but he's not the only target | Jonathan Liew

There are plenty of potential whistleblowers with their own stories, seeing what happens when you dare to speak out

On the evening of 5 October last year, a man approached a house in Barnsley with a mobile phone in one hand and some toilet rolls in the other. According to written testimony submitted to a parliamentary inquiry, the man circled the house for several minutes talking into his phone, before walking into the garden and taking a dump.

Then there was the bloke who stalked the house late at night carrying what looked like a length of chain. People shouting abuse through shop windows and car windows. Guys sliding into his messages to call him a “lying little scum”, a “fucking piece of shit”, a “Paki rat”, threatening to destroy his family business. The many times he has walked down the streets of his home town and wondered whether this is the day someone finally makes good on their promise of violence.

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