I play tennis and write while in jail says Max Clif ford
Sex attacker is inmates’ equality rep
MAX Clifford yesterday compared jail to being ‘buried alive’ – despite revealing he is enjoying playing tennis and writing a book behind bars.
Protesting his innocence, the disgraced former public relations guru said he has ‘lost everything’ since being sentenced in 2014 to eight years for sex crimes.
The 73-year-old described his life in prison as he gave evidence in his defence while facing trial over a new allegation.
He is accused of exposing himself to a teenager when he ambushed her inside his Mayfair office in the early 1980s.
But speaking at Southwark Crown Court, he said the supposed ‘victim’ was lying and only interested in his money.
Clifford, who boasts of helping to launch The Beatles, said he was ‘disgusted’ by the allegations made against him in court two years ago and has instructed his legal team on an appeal.
Wearing a smart navy suit and tie, he said: ‘I was found guilty... I know I’m innocent. Hopefully one day I will be able to prove that.
‘I know I was not guilty. One of the things I have learned is you’re guilty until you’re proven innocent when sexual offences are involved.’
Describing his life in prison, Clifford said it was a ‘serious shock to the system’. He said: ‘Now you’ve lost your freedom, you have lost everything. I can only compare it to being buried alive.’
Clifford said he has now taken on the role of equalities rep, representing inmates who fall victim to racism or discrimination at Littlehey Prison, near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.
‘At Littlehey Prison, I teach in education, I play tennis, I’m writing another book – all of these things,’ he said. ‘The emphasis at the prison is rehabilitation. I’m an equalities rep, if anyone has any racial issues or gender issues, I help them out.’
Ahead of his latest trial, Clifford was transferred to Wandsworth Prison where he said he has been kept in his cell for ‘23-and-a-half hours a day’.
He said he had been forced to scrub excrement from the walls of his cell. He told jurors: ‘It’s a simple cell – no communications, no TVs, radio, it doesn’t even have a kettle. When I arrived, the walls were covered in excrement.’
Opening the defence case, his QC, Sarah Forshaw, claimed Clifford was convicted at the ‘height of the Operation Yewtree hysteria’.
She said: ‘I’m not blind to the fact that we face an uphill struggle. The cards were stacked against Max Clifford from before his trial.’
The alleged victim in the latest trial claims she was sexually assaulted by Clifford in his office when she was 17 years old, some time between October 1981 and May 1982.
Clifford, formerly of Hersham in Surrey, denies indecent assault.
In the witness box, he said his office was often visited by aspiring models and pop stars who would be sexually interested in him ‘even if I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame’.
Clifford said he had ‘three main affairs’ over 15 years and in 1981 was seeing a French model, adding: ‘In terms of passion and sex, I was getting plenty.’
He claimed the alleged victim’s reason for going to the police was for money and that he had faced up to ten claims of compensation.
The trial continues.