Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Cliff: I’d rather 10 guilty people escape than see an innocent man suffer
Loose Women fans outraged
CLIFF Richard has said he would sooner see 10 guilty people escape justice than have one innocent person suffer wrongly.
The 78-year-old pop veteran referenced a comment made by a judge in the 1760s during ITV’S Loose Women yesterday.
He was talking about moving on after being wrongly accused of historical sex abuse. The BBC aired the 2014 raid on his home live and has lost a privacy case.
Cliff said: “There’s not just a few of them [wrongly accused], there’s an army. I’ve had so many letters. Some have spent two years in prison and been innocent. It’s the danger of if we don’t change the law it’s going to keep happening to innocent people.
“When I was in the court with the BBC I saw a quote I loved, a judge, Blackstone, said, ‘I would rather 10 guilty people escape than one innocent person suffer’.”
Blackstone’s Ratio comes from William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. The 10-1 rule, meaning to err on the side of innocence, is the basis of “innocent until proven guilty”.
The Loose Women panel – including his pal Gloria Hunniford – nodded in agreement at Cliff ’s remark.
But viewers were outraged by the comment, which came after singer Mel B, 34, opened up about her “abusive relationship” with Stephen Belafonte. One viewer said: “I had to keep replaying to see if I misheard but Cliff Richard really did say [that]. Disgusting.” Another added: “Imagine having 10 predators on the streets just because you were mildly inconvenienced by an investigation into you that was proven to be untrue?”
And one viewer said: “Victims of abuse, assault and rape deserve more.”
Cliff has never been charged with any offence.