Earlier this week Rebecca Leighton - the 27 year-old nurse charged with the deaths of up to 40 patients who had been poisoned - walked free, after the Crown Prosecution Service stated that it was 'no longer appropriate' for a prosecution to be pursued.
Free in body, perhaps, but not in mind. For now Ms Leighton will have a battle to clear her name which could last months, probably years. She has, by her own definition, been "living in hell" during the past few weeks, but one cannot help but feel that her hell is only just beginning.
She will struggle to find employment. Her reputation will be sullied and smeared amongst those who have made snap judgements and are sticking to them. And all because the media got hold of her name and spread it far and wide.
I'll hold my hands up at this point, and freely admit that I - along with millions of others - thought that she was guilty. Look at those Facebook photos of her acting so irresponsibly, dressed up like a cowboy with a toy gun in her mouth! Surely the actions of a killer in waiting. Look at her on the Daily Mail: alcohol in her hand, a 'frantic' social life...why didn't anyone stop her before she killed people? I blame the parents. Certainly, she is the very embodiment of evil.
But she isn't; and, thanks to the media's desperation to burrow and scurry to find as much sordid information as they can, she faces an uphill struggle to regain even a shred of dignity.
This is not the first time that this concern has been raised. When the hunt was on for Joanna Yeates' murderer, her landlord - Chris Jeffries - was arrested. With his pointy eyebrows and wispy hair, he apparently looked every bit the calculating killer, and by golly didn't we all think it.
But he was released without charge, which prompted the attorney general to remind the media to avoid a vulture-like frenzy when someone has been arrested. (Jeffries later sued for libel, and received compensation and apologies from no fewer than eight newspapers.)
There have, in the past, been calls for Parliament to take action with regards to naming suspects in high-profile criminal cases. Perhaps, as Rebecca Leighton tries to pick up the pieces of her life, it's time for them to take note.
Follow Ben Wakeling on Twitter: www.twitter.com/benwakeling
BBC is as bad as anyone and they are supposed to be independent of the need to attract sales with tattle.