MICROAGGRESSION, MEET MACROAGGRESSION: The inoffensive everyday phrases used by reporter Alison Parker that earned her a death sentence because Flanagan deemed them ‘racist’.

‘We would say stuff like, “The reporter’s out in the field.” And he would look at us and say, “What are you saying, cotton fields? That’s racist”.’

‘We’d be like, “What?’ We all know what that means, but he took it as cotton fields, and therefore we’re all racists.’ . . .

In a sometimes-rambling account of his time at WDBJ Flanagan accused co-workers of racially harassing him by placing the watermelon around the office.

‘The watermelon would appear, then disappear, then appear and disappear, then appear and disappear again only to appear again,’ he wrote in a May 2014 letter to presiding Judge Francis Burkart.

‘This was not an innocent incident. The watermelon was placed in a strategic location.’