BBC must tell Sir Cliff more about sex allegation source

SIR Cliff Richard has won the latest skirmish in his High Court battle with the BBC.

A judge told BBC bosses to give the singer, 76, more information about how a journalist learned that he was being investigated as a result of a sex assault allegation.

Mr Justice Mann said the corporation must reveal whether the source was someone working on the wider Metropolitan Police inquiry into sex abuse allegations, Operation Yewtree.

The judge had analysed competing arguments at a preliminary hearing earlier this month and he announced his decision in a written ruling.

Sir Cliff has sued the BBC over coverage of a raid at his apartment in Sunningdale, Berks, in August 2014.

Lawyers representing the singer said he had suffered “profound and longlasting” damage. However, a spokesman said the BBC had reported Sir Cliff’s “full denial of the allegations at every stage”.

Lawyers have told how in late 2013 a man made an allegation to the Metropolitan Police, saying he had been sex- ually assaulted by Sir Cliff at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane football stadium, when he was a child in 1985.

Officers had passed the allegation to South Yorkshire Police in July 2014. Sir Cliff denied the allegation and in June 2016 prosecutors announced he would face no charges.

Mr Justice Mann has overseen a number of preliminary hearings. Any trial is expected to take place next year.

Sir Cliff had also sued South Yorkshire Police. The judge was last week told that the force had agreed to pay the singer “substantial” damages.

Sir Cliff has alleged misuse of private information, infringement of his human right to a private life and a breach of data protection legislation.

Mr Justice Mann said he had weighed the singer’s rights to a fair trial against journalists’ rights to protect sources.

“There is no real risk of the answer leading to the identification of the source,” he said.

“If (Sir Cliff ’s) privacy rights have been invaded, he has a good case for saying that he needs the information in order to vindicate those rights.”