Cliff accuser ‘is one of the UK’s worst sex offenders’
ONE of Sir Cliff Richard’s child sex accusers is himself one of Britain’s most notorious sex offenders, it was revealed yesterday. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was one of nine ’complainants’ who made claims of abuse against the pop legend.
He alleged Sir Cliff sexually assaulted him at the notorious Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London, the subject of previous discredited claims of VIP child abuse.
Police spent nearly two years investigating the allegations of Sir Cliff’s accusers, but prosecutors concluded in five weeks that there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to bring charges.
The revelation that police took seriously claims by one of Britain’s worst sex offenders, who was suffering from a severe mental illness, deepens the controversy surrounding the case.
The rapist – who was given several life sentences – alleged Cliff abused him in 1982 when he was a teenager, and blamed the attack for turning him into a sexual predator.
Last night ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor, a former suspect in Scotland Yard’s disgraced Operation Midland VIP child abuse inquiry, called on detectives to stop ‘indulging’ child sex abuse fantasists and return to ‘proper traditional policing’.
Mr Proctor, cleared of a string of false murder and paedophile claims made by a suspected serial fantasist known as Nick, said: ‘ Having gone through a similar experience, I am full of sympathy for Sir Cliff’s painful ordeal, which he has borne with great dignity and panache.
‘He has not even been prosecuted let alone been proven guilty and the web of fantasy that has been spun by the “complainants” in cahoots with a believing police force in South Yorkshire is no cover for monstrous victimisation of a knight of the realm.’
On Thursday Sir Cliff, 75, who was never arrested over the allegations, spoke out to say he had been ‘hung out like live bait’ after being told he will not be prosecuted over the claims – almost two years after South Yorkshire Police raided his £2.5million home in front of a BBC TV crew.
And yesterday police faced new questions after details emerged of one of his accusers. According to The Sun, the rapist – who is a paranoid schizophrenic and reportedly made his allegations from a psychiatric hospital – claimed he took drugs to the guest house in 1982. He alleged he was sexually assaulted by Sir Cliff in front of other people, but when asked how many witnesses were in the room he was only able to say ‘this is going back a long time’.
South Yorkshire Police did not respond to a request for comment on the revelation that a serial rapist was among Sir Cliff’s accusers.