Almost exactly 36 years after an ailing Iranian leader called for his murder, Sir Salman Rushdie found himself sitting in the witness box of a courtroom in upstate New York, describing what it was like to be stabbed in the face.

“He was hitting me repeatedly, stabbing and slashing,” he said.

And had he had any previous interactions with this person, the prosecutor Jason Schmidt asked.

“No, sir,” Rushdie replied.

They had not exchanged insults on social media. They were not parties to a bitter dispute over a parking space. They had never met.

The individual, Hadi Matar, was sat just across the courtroom, staring at a legal pad, pen in hand. He has now been convicted of a horrific act of violence after a