PUBLICIST MAX CLIFFORD has been sentenced to eight years in prison after being found guilty of indecent assault.
The judge said that Clifford had shown no remorse at all for the crimes against the women and young girls he had assaulted, and said he held him largely responsible for the delay in victims coming forward.
The sentence was judged to be appropriate to the times when the crimes were carried out. Judge Anthony Leonard told the court that some of the assaults would be classified as rape under current legislation in England.
The judge ruled that the sentences are to be served consecutively. Clifford will serve a minimum of 4 years.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court in London found Clifford guilty on Monday of eight charges against women and girls as young as 15 between 1977 and 1984.
Arriving at the court today, Clifford refused to apologise to his victims. When asked if he had anything to say to them, he responded: “I stand by everything I’ve said in the past. Everything”. Clifford had repeatedly claimed he was innocent.
Clifford was found guilty of four indecent assaults on one 15-year-old girl in 1977; two assaults on a 16/17-year-old girl between 1981 and 1983; one indecent assault on a 19-year-old woman between 1981 and 1982; and one indecent assault on an 18-year-old woman in 1984.
He was found not guilty of two further charges, while the jury was unable to reach a decision on a final charge involving a 14-year-old girl.
He had told the court that the claims were “a load of lies”, describing his victims as “fantasists and opportunists”.
The police investigation was launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
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