HORROR SEX ATTACK
crash interview on ITV’S This Morning in 2008.
After 50 years in showbiz, claims of sex abuse began to emerge. Days after the 2012 inquiry started, Clifford said that in the 1960s and 1970s, some stars “never asked for anybody’s birth certificate”.
His fall from grace was cemented in 2014, when he was found guilty of indecent assaults on four girls, aged 14 to 19, between 1977 and 1984. After he was jailed, BBC star Louis Theroux said he regretted not being able to “shed more light” on the assaults when he made a documentary about Clifford in 2002.
Clifford’s first wife Liz died in 2003 and the pervert, a self-confessed “ringmaster” at sex parties he organised, wed his former PA Jo Westwood, 54, in 2010. She divorced him 18 days after he was jailed. Even after he was jailed, Clifford changed my view of men and gave me a fear and anxiety that wasn’t there before.”
Cathy told how at the time she blamed herself. “It was like a shame on you. You asked yourself what you had done that somehow invited this.”
The UNICEF ambassador, who wants to set up a charity for women and
Theroux made show in 2002 was a man who knew an awful lot of people’s secrets, so for some his demise would have come as a huge relief.
There were those who wanted help with concealing their sexuality for fear it would affect their careers and those who shared his criminal taste for underage girls.
Clifford died in jail virtually friendless after a fall from grace so complete not one of his former clients could find anything to say about his sudden death.
Mark Williams-thomas, the journalist who helped to expose the sickening crimes of late BBC star Jimmy Savile, tweeted: “Max Clifford takes many secrets to his grave and got away with many offences he was never prosecuted for.
“He brought many people.” great suffering to children in war zones who have had similar experiences, said becoming an author helped heal her.
Cathy added: “It was a powerful motivator. I always wanted to write and it was cathartic to get rid of the feelings of shame, humiliation and secrecy.
“I went through all of those things and I have written about it in my books.”