We’re sorry for sex slurs against Sir Cliff, says the BBC
THE BBC caved i n and apologised to Cliff Richard yesterday for naming him as a sex abuse suspect.
In a dramatic U-turn, the corporation said it was ‘very sorry’ for the distress caused to the veteran singer.
The apology came less than 12 hours after the Mail revealed in an exclusive interview that Sir Cliff thought the stress of the two-year investigation would kill him. Last night the 75-yearold angrily rebuffed the ‘appearance’ of an apology, saying it might not stop him mounting a court action against the BBC or police.
Following a tip-off, the corporation filmed South Yorkshire detectives raiding Sir Cliff ’s home in August 2014 and identified him as an alleged sex abuser.
The singer, who was on holiday in
‘We may have to let the courts decide’
Portugal, discovered he was a suspect only by watching the raid on television. The Crown Prosecution Service threw out the case last week but, while police said sorry to Sir Cliff, the BBC refused to do so.
Last night – following the Mail interview – it issued a statement saying: ‘The BBC is very sorry that Sir Cliff Richard, who has worked as a musician and performer for so many years with the organisation, has suffered distress.’
The stance was in stark contrast to last week when corporation chiefs responded to Sir Cliff ’s exoneration by saying it had ‘applied normal editorial judgments’ to the story, without acknowledging his distress.
The BBC is still standing by its decision to run the story.
Sir Cliff told the Mail last night that he was ‘bitterly disappointed to see that while finally appearing to offer an apology for the distress I have suffered, the BBC do not acknowledge they themselves have caused it’.
He added: ‘ They are at the same time undermining their own apology by claiming that they were acting in the public interest.
‘I fail to understand how this socalled story was in the public interest and I believe that is a view shared by millions of fair-minded people. So, in due course we may have to let the courts determine this issue.’
In Sir Cliff ’s emotional Mail interviews, he reveals how he physically collapsed after watching his Berkshire home being ransacked.
He said it was like being hung out as ‘live bait’. Nine people came forward to make vile accusations against him – including, it turned out, a jailed sex offender and a blackmailer, both of whom the police took seriously.
For two years, Sir Cliff suffered in silence as his reputation as a cleancut pop star was dragged through the mud. Prosecutors took just four weeks to announce the police case was ‘insufficient’.
Sir Cliff said the flimsy accusations included a ‘ridiculous’ claim that he had allegedly molested one victim while wearing roller skates. His long-standing friend Gloria Hunniford told BBC 5 Live yesterday the torment was so great that the singer had never returned to his home.
She said the abuse allegations had ‘always been uppermost in his mind’, adding: ‘But his attitude has always been great – it’s a good attitude. But as he says himself, he wants the word “innocent”, not “insufficient evidence”. He’s angry with everything. He’s angry with South Yorkshire Police, angry with the BBC.
‘Imagine sitting in Portugal, watching your home – having no notification – being ransacked. Every single personal thing was taken, and you haven’t even been interviewed.’
Despite saying sorry, the corporation stuck to its guns in reporting the police interest in Sir Cliff.
Its statement said: ‘ The BBC’s responsibility is to report fully stories that are in the public interest. The BBC, at every stage, reported Sir Cliff ’s full denial of the allegations.
‘The BBC, therefore, stands by the decision to report the investigation undertaken by South Yorkshire Police and the search of his property.’