ShamedpublicistMaxClifford,jailedfor sexcrimes,diesafterfallingillinprison
DISGRACED former celebrity publicist Max Clifford has died, the Ministry of Justice said.
The 74-year-old was said to have been “in a bad way” after collapsing twice at Littlehey Prison in Cambridgeshire, where he was serving an eight-year jail sentence for historic sex offences.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice later confirmed that Clifford had died in hospital yesterday. “As with all deaths in custody, there will be an investigation by the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman,” the spokesman said. “Our condolences are with Mr Clifford’s family at this difficult time.”
His daughter, Louise (46), told the Mail on Sunday that Clifford first collapsed in his cell on Thursday when he was trying to clean it. “It was just too much,” she commented.
She said he collapsed again the next day and was unconscious for several minutes, and after seeing a nurse was transferred to a local hospital where he suffered a cardiac arrest on Friday. Following this she said he was in a critical care unit and described him as being in a “bad way”.
Clifford was jailed for eight years in May 2014 after being convicted of a number of charges under Operation Yewtree, the Met Police investigation set up
Above: Max Clifford with daughter Louise, with actress Barbara Windsor (above right), and with his ex-wife Jo
after the Jimmy Savile scandal. He was the first person to be convicted as part of the national investigation. During his sentencing, he branded his accusers as “fantasists”.
The PR guru, who used his celebrity connections to lure women,
was found guilty of a string of indecent assaults, with the sex attacks carried out between 1977 and 1984.
In 2016 he was cleared of indecently assaulting a teenage girl, after being accused of using his power to humiliate the 17-yearold
into performing a sex act on him in the 1980s.
Clifford, on the basis of fresh evidence, had been due to appeal against all his convictions early next year, the Mail on Sunday reported. The former PR mogul, who crafted a reputation for gar- nering maximum exposure for the fame-hungry wannabes in his charge, had been ill since suffering a heart attack in August.
Clifford’s extensive contacts in Fleet Street — he described himself as “often poacher and gamekeeper at the same time” — meant he was increasingly turned to as a commentator on matters involving the media.
Sleazy Clifford once suggested that former Miss Northern Ireland Joanne Salley could earn £1m a year after topless photos emerged of her in 2011. At the time, the Co Tyrone former model was working in the exclusive Harrow School in Middlesex.
Clifford also represented former Miss GB Gemma Garrett from Northern Ireland.
She later accused him of ripping her off.
Clifford’s first wife, Liz, died in 2003, having been cheated on repeatedly during their near-40 years of matrimony.
Clifford, a self-confessed “ringmaster” at sex parties he organised, would re-marry in 2010, tying the knot with his former PA Jo Westwood, but they later divorced.
Daughter Louise suffered severe physical difficulties from birth which meant Clifford would wake several times in the night to tend to her. She was a regular visitor in the public gallery during Clifford’s court cases, supporting her father.