Detective felt ‘forced’ to give Cliff raid news

♦ A retired detective has told the High Court he felt “forced” to reveal the police raid on Sir Cliff Richard’s home to a BBC journalist.

Matthew Fenwick said he believed Dan Johnson would run a story about South Yorkshire Police’s investigation into an allegation of sexual assault unless he was told about the search. He said: “I didn’t want them to publish a story at that stage.”

Sir Cliff, 77, is suing the BBC for “substantial damages” over its coverage of the raid but BBC lawyers said it was “of legitimate public interest” and its coverage was in good faith.

Sir Cliff Richard told a judge his name had been “smeared” across the world