Tom Powell
CELEBRITY publicist Max Clifford has been found guilty of eight charges of sexual assault, including two separate incidents on the Costa del Sol.
Clifford, a regular in Southern Spain, faced 11 counts of indecent assault between 1966 and 1984 in the UK.
After eight days of jury deliberations, he was cleared of two counts and they were unable to reach a verdict in the other. He will be sentenced this Friday.
The 71-year-old was accused of manipulating seven girls and women into performing sex acts over many years.
He sexually abused a teenager he met in Torremolinos while she was on holiday with her parents in 1977.
Another woman claimed to have been molested by Clifford in a jacuzzi in Calahonda when she was a 12-year-old girl.
Now 43, she described a ‘tickling game’ that Clifford played with her before the alleged assault.
Clifford is the first person to be convicted under Operation Yewtree, after being arrested in December 2012 as part of the inquiry and charged last April.
Judge Anthony Leonard told the jury of six men and four women last week that he would accept a majority verdict of nine to one if they could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Clifford did a lot of PR work in the Marbella area, including club La Costa and the Polo House restaurant.
He also offered his services to Marbella Town Hall, however it was decided the €10,000 a month he demanded was too high.
The ‘Max Clifford Celebrity Golf Challenge and Butterfly Ball’ is a key event in the Marbella social calendar, hosted annually by Clifford in aid of the Rhys Daniels Trust, of which Clifford in the patron.
The star-studded event takes place at the La Cala Golf Resort in Mijas, near Marbella, and last year’s event raised more than €42,000 for the charity.
Im amazed you haven’t suggested he was a friend of Nigel Goldman’s given all the other ‘friends’ he has suddenly acquired! Bet you moderate this comment like you did my last one!
Hi Michael,
Not the slightest bit of moderation. Only when comments are racist, crude or potentially libellous do we do that…
So you would know all Nigel Goldman’s friends would you?
All the lovely, above board, decent people he mixed with? Why not shed some light…
Of course you must be referring to serial (now imprisoned) fraudster Richard Pope, who Goldman spent a good deal of time with on various social occasions down here, while he was on the run and lying low… or did we get that wrong? Please tell.
And, as it happens, we are certain Goldman also mixed with Max Clifford, many times and at many places on the coast. And we would welcome readers comments or information on Clifford’s many trips down to the Costa del Sol, and who exactly he mixed with.
Oh and what a shame his regular soujourns to the Costa del Sol sprinkling his own brand of twisted stardust have now come to a timely end… for at least a decade. Even two decades if he gets treated the same way as Mike Souter! Another friend of Goldman’s perhaps???????????
What has Nigel Goldman to do with this story? Surely not everyone can be guilty by association or even friendship or by just passing someone in the street! Saying that, what has happened to the Goldman story? Has the trail gone cold? I was told he deleted his Facebook profile a few weeks ago!
With regards Max Clifford, he did seem to have many associates and friends here, not least a now “retired” radio DJ who is currently writing his memoirs apparently. That individual is also said to have had ‘experience’ of the ‘younger’ women which I understand he admitted! No smoke without fire maybe and he professed to be a good friend of Clifford’s! That’s what he always said on the radio anyway. Where is he now?
If you have any experience of the entertainment industries you will know that all these guys did the same thing … It was what men in their position did in the 1970s and 80s when there was little scrutiny. They married, treated their wives like servants, and then tried to have sex with as many women as possible…stretching the definition of women.
For this “…71-year-old was accused of manipulating seven girls and women into performing sex acts over many years.” you gave him MORE line space in credits for his PR work and charity affairs (ie. business ad & Tax deductable for him) than you reported his Guilty verdict & multiple,witnesses’ confirming reasons – “tiny p…!”). Not good priority. Tho Judge’s Direction to Jury to accept 9/1 Guilty verdict may serve as an Appeal base. UGH!
Golf anyone?
bluenick,
your wrong, this creep abused a woman in 2009, the reason she did’nt figure in the trial was on advice of the police – now why would they do that? This woman testifying would have buried him for sure. We know they dismissed any complaints against Saville for decades – they are sycophantic to celebrities.
Saville was still abusing girls and women until just before his death.
The tide is starting to turn in these type of cases. The police always took the attitude that victims would not be believed. That the only evidence was the victims word. Forensics rarely came into it back when. For instance the current looming scandal concerns a dead Rochdale ex. M.P.
The people alleging his misdeeds came from care homes in the district. These were kids from poor, sometimes delinquent backgrounds. Fairly inarticulate, badly educated and mostly, unwanted.
These monsters are cunning. They know exactly who to pick on and choose their victims carefully. If it wasn’t for juries being willing to accept their testimony without back-up forensics, they would still be cheerfully continuing their filthy activities. As we have seen, some go laughing to the grave, free and clear.