Inquest opens into death of Clifford
AN INQUEST has been opened and adjourned on disgraced former celebrity publicist Max Clifford.
The 74-year-old collapsed twice at Littlehey Prison in Cambridgeshire, where he was serving an eight-year sentence for historical sex offences. He died at Hinchingbrooke Hospital near Huntingdon on December 10.
Cambridgeshire’s Senior Coroner David Heming adjourned a 90-second inquest hearing in Huntingdon yesterday, saying the cause of death had yet to be established.
He added that as Clifford was in custody, there would be an investigation by the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman. The hearing was adjourned until June 7 for a pre-inquest review.
Clifford was jailed for eight years in May 2014 after being convicted of a number of charges under Operation Yewtree, the Metropolitan Police investigation set up after the Jimmy Savile scandal. He was the first person to be convicted as part of the national inquiry. During his sentencing, he branded his accusers as “fantasists”.
The PR guru, who used his celebrity connections to lure women, was found guilty of a string of indecent assaults between 1977 and 1984. In 2016, he was cleared of indecently assaulting a teenage girl after being accused of using his power to humiliate the 17-year-old into performing a sex act on him in the 1980s. He had been due to appeal against all his convictions early next year.