CLIFF: I’M TOTALLY INNOCENT
Star’s fury as police raid his £3m home after claims of sex assault on boy at 1980s Christian rally
Sir Cliff Richard yesterday furiously denied sexually assaulting a schoolboy at a Christian rally.
His denial came as police raided his home over the allegation dating back almost three decades.
The star said ‘ completely false’ claims had been circulating on the internet for months but he had
By Rebecca Camber
and Emily Davies
chosen not to ‘dignify’ them with a response.
Detectives swooped on the singer’s £3.1million apartment in Berkshire, spending five hours searching for evidence after receiving a report that a teenager under the age of 16 was attacked in Sheffield at an event held by American evangelist Billy Graham in 1985.
Sir Cliff, 73, who is holidaying in Portugal, is expected to be interviewed by police within days and has said he will ‘fully co-operate’ with their investigation.
He was said to be shocked yesterday when he learnt that police were searching his penthouse suite in Sunningdale after live television images of the raid were beamed around the world.
Officers are expected to question the star as soon he flies back to the UK. Sir Cliff accused police of leaking the raid to the media
yesterday, saying he had no notice of the searches being carried out.
The star has long feared he could be investigated after allegations of sexual abuse emerged almost two years ago.
In a terse statement, he said: ‘For many months I have been aware of allegations against me of historic impropriety which have been circulating online.
‘The allegations are completely false. Up until now I have chosen not to dignify the false allegations with a response, as it would just give them more oxygen.
‘However, the police attended my apartment in Berkshire today without notice except, it would appear, to the Press.
‘It goes without saying that I will co-operate fully should the police wish to speak to me.’
The alleged assault is said to have taken place during a Christian ‘crusade’ by US preacher Billy Graham who spent eight days delivering sermons at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane stadium in June 1985.
Sir Cliff, dressed in white, was a guest star at one of the rallies. He sang gospel songs and gave a speech avowing his faith in front of a crowd of 7,000 adults and children
An allegation of sexual assault at the event first surfaced in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal almost two years ago.
It was made just weeks after an ITV documentary was broadcast on October 3, 2012 called Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile.
There followed a blitz of speculation on the internet wrongly linking Sir Cliff to ongoing historic sexual abuse inquiries involving other celebrities and politicians.
However, police are now investigating a single allegation against the star relating to a boy aged between ten and 16, which is not being linked to any other inquiries.
The incident was initially reported to Operation Yewtree, the Scotland Yard investigation set up in October 2012 to examine claims against Savile and other celebrities. But the matter was only recently passed to South Yorkshire Police.
Yesterday a team of eight plain clothes detectives from South Yorkshire and Thames Valley Police entered his British home at 10.30am after being let in by a member of staff. Sir Cliff spends most of his time abroad at homes in Barbados and Portugal.
The BBC were given extraordinary access to the search, filming live from a helicopter directly i nto his apartment, where detectives were seen rifling through his belongings.
After five hours, five unmarked police cars were seen leaving the gated property at 3.30pm and police took away several bags of material for further analysis. A police spokesman said: ‘Items have been removed which will be investigated. We will not discuss what has been seized.
‘We would like to speak to the owner of the property.’
At a police station in South Yorkshire, Detective Superintendent Matt Fenwick stressed the investigation is in its ‘really early stages’.
He said: ‘ A search warrant has been granted after police received an allegation of a sexual nature dating back to the 1980s. This involved a young boy under the age of 16 years.’
Several of Sir Cliff’s celebrity friends expressed astonishment that he was being investigated.
TV presenter Gloria Hunniford, 7 , said: ‘I’ve never seen Cliff put a foot or a word wrong in his life, never. He is a gorgeous man.’
Sir Cliff’s former manager Bill Latham, who lived with the star for 30 years, denounced the allegations as ‘fiction’. Another close friend, Cilla Black, 71, declined to make any comment.
Sir Cliff, born Harry Webb, is one of the most successful British musicians of all time. The famously celibate bachelor has sold 21.5million singles – more than any other male British artist – and is the only performer to have had at least one UK top five album in each of the last seven decades.
He has represented Britain in the Eurovision song contest twice and in 2013 released the 100th album of his career.
He was knighted in 1995, the first pop star to be so honoured, and performed at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace in 2012.
Sir Cliff has been a regular visitor to the Algarve in Portugal for more than four decades, and normally spends all of July and August at his vineyard retreat after the Wimbledon final. He was believed to be elsewhere in Portugal yesterday.