He’s the controversial WikiLeaks founder who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy for three years following serious sexual assault charges. In a rare interview, Giles Whittell meets Julian Assange and finds a man so paranoid he fears stepping out onto his balcony

Waiting outside the Ecuadorean embassy in London to interview Julian Assange, I got talking with the policeman who would arrest him if he walked out.

“It’s got to be done, hasn’t it?” the copper said.