After seven years holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has finally been arrested for jumping bail.

Its been an interesting few days since he was dragged, kicking and screaming, from the building in Knightsbridge.

It is worth remembering what he has done. He has been arrested by the British police because he jumped bail seven years ago.

He was on bail because the Swedish police wanted to talk to him about allegations of sexual assault against two Swedish women. But at the same time, his organisation worked with US Army data processor Chelsea Manning who stole vast quantities of data and documents from the US military.

These documents were explosive in their content and resulted in Manning going to prison.

One the one hand, Assange is an alleged sexual predator; on the other he is a champion of free speech and investigative journalism.

However, the authorities in both Sweden and the US want to speak to him, at length, about his activities.

Senior Labour politicians came out in force saying that Assange’s stance on transparency was a virtue to be protected and called for him to be protected against extradition requests from the US.

Interestingly the Labour Party, in an unrelated episode, removed a member of their own staff from their HQ because he or she had leaked internal documents to The Times relating to the anti-Semitism row that is engulfing Labour.

This jaw-dropping act of hypocrisy should not be allowed to detract from the fact that whilst the bright sunlight of transparency serves to give us all better democracy, the act of hacking into a secure government data base that is covered by essential security is a criminal act in itself.

What protects governments also protects private individuals and no one wants their private details opened up for public scrutiny.

Assange must face his accusers and have his time in court. His self indulgent antics in the Ecuadorean embassy over the last seven years means that one of the women he is alleged to have assaulted has lost her chance for justice against Assange.

That is wrong, but at least the other still has time.

Is he a champion for free speech and transparency? Or is he just an unpleasant narcissist? We all have our opinion but at least now justice can be served and we will find out for sure if he is just a rapist and a computer hacker.