Cliff wins damages and police apology after raid
SOUTH Yorkshire Police have agreed to pay Sir Cliff Richard “substantial” damages after the singer sued following BBC reports naming him as a suspected sex offender, a High Court judge has been told.
A barrister heading the singer’s legal team gave details of the terms of a settlement to Mr Justice Mann at a High Court hearing in London yesterday.
Justin Rushbrooke QC did not say how much the force had agreed to pay.
Sir Cliff had sued South Yorkshire Police, and the BBC, over coverage of a raid at his apartment in Sunningdale, Berkshire, in August 2014. He had alleged misuse of private information, infringement of his human right to respect for private life and a breach of data protection legislation.
Mr Rushbrooke said Sir Cliff and the BBC remained in dispute.
But he said South Yorkshire Police had agreed to pay “substantial damages” to compensate for “unlawful” conduct.
He said South Yorkshire Police should not have made disclosures about the investigation into Sir Cliff to the BBC and should not have cooperated with the BBC in the way they did. Barrister Adam Wolanski, who represented South Yorkshire Police, said force bosses accepted that Sir Cliff ’s private information should not have been disclosed to the BBC.
Bosses acknowledged that the force’s conduct had been unlawful and offered “sincere apologies”, Mr Wolanski told the judge.
Mr Justice Mann has heard that in late 2013 a man made an allegation to the Metropolitan Police, saying he had been sexually assaulted by Sir Cliff at Sheffield United’s football stadium when a child in 1985. Metropolitan Police officers passed the allegation to South Yorkshire Police.
Sir Cliff had denied the allegation and in June 2016 prosecutors announced he would face no charges.