He had been brought into the family home by the parents to give lessons in the Islamic faith. The justice system has also betrayed this child and affronted public opinion by failing to hand down a tough sentence. Why?

Though Maknojioa was given a 40-week custodial sentence it was suspended for two years because Judge Michael Byrne decided that this man’s family was entirely dependent on him as his wife speaks very little English.

His wife’s inability to speak English is a separate issue but it is nonetheless a direct result of the doctrine of multiculturalism which indulges those who refuse to engage with British culture. It has a pernicious effect on many Islamic women who are thereby isolated and as this case shows totally dependent on their husbands.

Thus Maknojioa’s family (he is on benefits and has six children) are protected and helped while the victim’s family have received neither comfort nor proper acknowledgement of the wrong they suffered.

It would have been better if the abuser had been sent to prison and his wife given English lessons.

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NIGEL Farage has already disowned Ukip’s 2010 manifesto. The Ukip leader has got away with this because, frankly, many of the policies were pretty flaky (uniforms for taxi drivers for example). Mr Farage was also admired for his plain speaking.

But he has now done a U-turn on gay marriage. Having stated Ukip’s opposition he now says that he would not abolish the gay marriages that have taken place.

This isn’t good enough. Those who are fundamentally opposed to gay marriage – not because they are anti-gay but because they are pro-marriage – will be disturbed by his flip-flopping over such an important moral issue. It will also be a disappointment to Conservatives who joined Ukip as a protest over David Cameron’s support for gay marriage.

A party leader can change his mind only so many times.

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THE pound coin still feels to many like a shiny newcomer though unbelievably it’s more than 30 years since the “pound in your pocket” ceased to be a note. The new-look pound coin whose arrival the Chancellor will announce today looks like an old-fashioned threepenny bit (harder to fake and very unlike the euro).

Unfortunately if you take inflation into account it probably isn’t worth much more than the old threepenny bit either.