Max Clifford Charged On 11 Counts

[bibblebub]

http://www.itv.com/news/story/2013-04-26/max-clifford-charged-indecent-assaults/

11 counts of indecent assault between 1966 and 1985, victimes aged from 14 to 19.

Perhaps we are now getting to the sharp end of all these investigations.

[frugalfred]

The matter is sub judice.

[Iluvspikey]

Always thought this bloke was a sleaze-ball anyway.

[ChillDoubt]

Hmmm.
Offences allegedly committed 25-45 years ago.
The legal team and other asset's at his disposal will make this very interesting.

[vakayu]

Well biblebub he must surely be in an excellent circle of acquaintances of media people to help with this one!!

[bibblebub]

It seems that we have started to see people being charged rather than just helping with enquiries so we can probably expect others to be up before the beak in the near future.

[murraymints]

Where will it end? However much I sympathise with legitimate claims...the cost of proving historical claims...and sheer logistics ....notwithstanding innocent reputations....

[jomifl]

A publicists dream, surely?

[murraymints]

Jom.....???

[woofgang]

mmmm when he was questioned he said something like he was looking forward to being charged....they had better be right.....

[murraymints]

My point bibble.....once charged...no smoke etc....how much of this is financially motivated..

[Gromit]

Too early to judge his guilt or otherwise.

But he represented the murderers of Stephen Lawrence, so he has always a scumbag in my book ever since.

[DTCwordfan]

So the lawyers who represented Stephen Lawrence's murderers are scumbags too, Gromit?

Me thinks not - it's a job and a right of any defendant to try and clear his or her name when charged.

[murraymints]

For goodness sake gromit ......innocent till otherwise....don't hang an innocent man..

[Kromovaracun]

Gromit did make clear that he isn't judging Clifford's guilt in this case.

Outside of it, however, he's perfectly entitled to comment on Clifford's character. A pretty accurate one too, in my opinion.

[jomifl]

irony MM :-)

[LazyGun]

MM raises some points that have been mentioned before by several people over the issues raised by these Operation Yewtree. Commentators often remark on time elapsed between the allegations and the original events, question where it will all end or where the line will be drawn, and often impute financial gain as a source of the allegations.

I think that is the wrong way to approach the issues. The alternatives are worse - Should we impose a statute of limitations on such crimes? Or should celebrities be afforded greater protection under the law? Or that we require a greater standard of proof - always something difficult to obtain in such cases? Or should we go back to routinely disbelieving or dismissing such allegations, which would be a major step backwards?

Myself, I would doubt that the majority of such allegations are made out of a desire to make money. It is obviously going to be difficult to determine absolutely, but all the best evidence suggests that false allegations of rape, for instance, are extremely rare.

[Gromit]

DTCrosswordfan.

Some lawyers are scumbags. It is their duty to represent clients but they often know when their clients are guilty and often get them off. Very horridle people get aquitted by the skill of a good lawyer who are only in it for the £££s. Personally, I could not help someone guilty of an evil gcrime get off, no matter how much money they gave me.

Murraymints,
Which bit of the sentence "Too early to judge his guilt or otherwise" did you not understand? I am not judging him on this charge, I am judging him on representing awful people in the past. The Daily Mail had already very publicly outed Lawrence's killers. Clifford, not out of duty or an obligation to povide a defence, went out of his way to make money by peddling these peoples lies. If he had been around at the time, he would probably have put in a good word for Brady and Hindley if there was money in it for him.

[Mrsspagnoli57]

Personally I do not like the man at all but he does seem to be the type to be fully sure of everything he does and will certainly fight tooth and nail to prove his innocence. I also feel that this whole thing is very worrying-one of the alleged offences was 47 years ago for goodness sake! The smell of compensation hunters is very strong.