LONDON: British celebrity publicist Max Clifford, the king of tabloid kiss-and-tell scandals, was sentenced to eight years in jail yesterday for a string of sex assaults against teenagers.
The 71-year-old, who masterminded countless celebrity stories and kept even more out of the headlines, thought he was “untouchable,” judge Anthony Leonard said.
“You targeted vulnerable women who you thought would comply because they were desperate to succeed,” Leonard said. The publicist was found guilty earlier this week of eight indecent assaults on four young women aged 15 to 19 between 1977 and 1984.
Clifford, who denied the charges, remained defiant as he entered London’s Southwark Crown Court for sentencing, stonewalling questions about whether he wanted to apologise to his victims. “I stand by everything I’ve said in the past,” said the silver-haired PR expert.
Clifford admitted it was “not the best day of my life”, adding: “I just have to make the best of it, that’s what I’ve got to do.” He is the first high-profile figure to be convicted under Operation Yewtree, the police investigation set up to investigate allegations of sex offences following the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Clifford’s victims came forward following revelations in 2012 that the late BBC presenter Savile — a household name in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s — had been a serial sex offender across the decades. Judge Leonard told Clifford he must serve at least half his sentence in jail.
“These offences may have taken place a long time ago when inappropriate and trivial sexual misbehaviour was more likely to be tolerated or overlooked,” Leonard said. However, “your offending is not trivial but of a very serious nature”.
Reuters
