Max Clifford in the Dock now.

PR consultant Max Clifford used his celebrity contacts "to bully and manipulate" girls and women into sexual acts with him, a court has heard.

Opening the prosecution case, Rosina Cottage QC said Mr Clifford knew how to "manipulate, lie and get what he wants".

Mr Clifford from Hersham, Surrey, faces 11 counts of indecent assault relating to seven alleged victims, aged from 14 to 19, between 1966 and 1984.

He denies all the charges against him.

Addressing Southwark Crown Court, Ms Cottage said: "The defendant used his contact with famous people to bully and manipulate these young people into sexual acts with him."
'Untouchable'

She went on to tell the jury of six men and six women that Mr Clifford's actions "breached the trust" of parents, who he had encouraged to trust him, and that of young women who were "seeking jobs in the world in which he worked".

Mr Clifford was "the maker of the kiss-and-tell celebrity and the breaker of reputations", Ms Cottage said.

I'll bet he's got a lot on a lot of people and if he goes down he may take a few others with him.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26463068

Irn Bru wrote:PR consultant Max Clifford used his celebrity contacts "to bully and manipulate" girls and women into sexual acts with him, a court has heard.

Opening the prosecution case, Rosina Cottage QC said Mr Clifford knew how to "manipulate, lie and get what he wants".

Mr Clifford from Hersham, Surrey, faces 11 counts of indecent assault relating to seven alleged victims, aged from 14 to 19, between 1966 and 1984.

He denies all the charges against him.

Addressing Southwark Crown Court, Ms Cottage said: "The defendant used his contact with famous people to bully and manipulate these young people into sexual acts with him."
'Untouchable'

She went on to tell the jury of six men and six women that Mr Clifford's actions "breached the trust" of parents, who he had encouraged to trust him, and that of young women who were "seeking jobs in the world in which he worked".

Mr Clifford was "the maker of the kiss-and-tell celebrity and the breaker of reputations", Ms Cottage said.

I'll bet he's got a lot on a lot of people and if he goes down he may take a few others with him.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26463068

IRN

No disrespect, but then times were different.  This is a money making machine like all the ones that have gone before.

I might not like the guy but if this continues all the male teachers in the country in the 60s qnd 70s will be up before the courts.  My junior school male teacher used to run myself and my neighbour also female home in his Ford prefect after Scalextrix club.  We used to embarrass our Mothers by inviting him in for Tea.  He unfortunately committed suicide after we had left the school......  We could now ask questions why.................  Do I want to know.............  No.

i still remember him, his haircut and his name.................  Did I consider he was dong wrong no................

gerber wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:PR consultant Max Clifford used his celebrity contacts "to bully and manipulate" girls and women into sexual acts with him, a court has heard.

Opening the prosecution case, Rosina Cottage QC said Mr Clifford knew how to "manipulate, lie and get what he wants".

Mr Clifford from Hersham, Surrey, faces 11 counts of indecent assault relating to seven alleged victims, aged from 14 to 19, between 1966 and 1984.

He denies all the charges against him.

Addressing Southwark Crown Court, Ms Cottage said: "The defendant used his contact with famous people to bully and manipulate these young people into sexual acts with him."
'Untouchable'

She went on to tell the jury of six men and six women that Mr Clifford's actions "breached the trust" of parents, who he had encouraged to trust him, and that of young women who were "seeking jobs in the world in which he worked".

Mr Clifford was "the maker of the kiss-and-tell celebrity and the breaker of reputations", Ms Cottage said.

I'll bet he's got a lot on a lot of people and if he goes down he may take a few others with him.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26463068

IRN

No disrespect, but then times were different.  This is a money making machine like all the ones that have gone before.

I might not like the guy but if this continues all the male teachers in the country in the 60s qnd 70s will be up before the courts.  My junior school male teacher used to run myself and my neighbour also female home in his Ford prefect after Scalextrix club.  We used to embarrass our Mothers by inviting him in for Tea.  He unfortunately committed suicide after we had left the school......  We could now ask questions why.................  Do I want to know.............  No.

i still remember him, his haircut and his name.................  Did I consider he was dong wrong no................

That's all very well Gerbs but if the evidence is there and it's strong enough that Clifford was involved in some kiddy-fiddling to haul him into court to answer the charges then that's where he should be.

Absolutely agree, apparently they found a letter in his bedside cabinet from a woman who said as a 15 year old, he had ruined her life.

Life was different I agree Gerbs, but men who manipulate young girls and use the power they have are always the same.

Irn Bru wrote:

gerber wrote:


IRN

No disrespect, but then times were different.  This is a money making machine like all the ones that have gone before.

I might not like the guy but if this continues all the male teachers in the country in the 60s qnd 70s will be up before the courts.  My junior school male teacher used to run myself and my neighbour also female home in his Ford prefect after Scalextrix club.  We used to embarrass our Mothers by inviting him in for Tea.  He unfortunately committed suicide after we had left the school......  We could now ask questions why.................  Do I want to know.............  No.

i still remember him, his haircut and his name.................  Did I consider he was dong wrong no................

That's all very well Gerbs but if the evidence is there and it's strong enough that Clifford was involved in some kiddy-fiddling to haul him into court to answer the charges then that's where he should be.

Irn

I am not againts th kiddy stuff

But

How far back does one have to go in History..................  The famous and infamous are being hauled through the courts...............  Rightly so, but for the wrong reasons.............the accusers smell money and that is where I have the problem.  It is not to put any one of them in jail - it is to line their bank accounts with compensation from the courts.

How many have been proved innocent so far................  And the court and legal proceedings have cost them their house, their income and on two occasions their marriage...................  Disgusting.  Gutter press.

who on these boars could recollect their exact movements say on 10 July 1971 at 5 : 30.  It might have been a Friday.............  If so I would more than likely been watching Crackerjack, but may not have been, the sun might have been shining, my bike might have been puncture free, i might have been on the Med with my parents........... but I could also have been somewhere else................  maybe in front of the Granada studios, for example..........  it makes my blood boil.  Who could say I wasn't actually in Manchester................

Gerbs, I really think it is insulting to the people who were abused to say they are doing it for money. I don't know if you have ever known anyone who has been abused, but it lives with them forever, and I expect before the Saville stuff they did not think they stood a chance of getting anywhere, and were frightened of coming out against people so famous and being laughed at. And I bet if you were abused, the date and time would be burnt into your memory.

Sassy wrote:Gerbs, I really think it is insulting to the people who were abused to say they are doing it for money.   I don't know if you have ever known anyone who has been abused, but it lives with them forever, and I expect before the Saville stuff they did not think they stood a chance of getting anywhere, and were frightened of coming out against people so famous and being laughed at.   And I bet if you were abused, the date and time would be burnt into your memory.

I do not intend to insult anyone. My point is and I have said all along ever since the Saville case, there are those that were abused and need our help but there are also the ones who weren't jumped on the bandwagon and smelled money............

The latter have caused the problem and the rejection by the courts.

it is now a huge money making machine both for the legal teams and the complainants. No medical evidence can be forthcoming it is now a matter of heresay and conjecture.... The money grabbers are actually ruining it all for the real victims.

I am not a sour puss, just a non chasing Ambulance sceptic. I like to win and will charge a fee...... No win no fee has no wash with me !

Out of all the many cases there are, there has to be some truth in it.
I think William Roache was guilty but not enough evidence and the same for many of the others I reckon.


By the by, why would a man keep a letter, that cold be used as evidence against him, in his bedside drawer???

It is so difficult in these times of compensation culture to reconcile claims that may be for financial gain against genuine hurt.

Saville was a clear cut serial abuser this case I am less sure and some of the others even less sure. I'm glad I'm not on a jury for these.

There should be no safe haven for people who are suspected of having sexually abused children or raped a woman and where there is enough evidence to take it to trial. Max Clifford has been accused of some disgusting acts and like everyone else he will get his day in court to prove that he is innocent.
He's a controversial character with a lot of enemies and a lot may come out of this. He also claimed that Alan Clark - who was a Minister in Maggie Thatcher's government - had sexually abused young girls and that he managed to cover it up.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuxvwy_max-clifford-alan-clarke-pedophile-protection_news

https://www.diigo.com/item/image/3d4e0/3art

Irn Bru wrote:There should be no safe haven for people who are suspected of having sexually abused children or raped a woman and where there is enough evidence to take it to trial. Max Clifford has been accused of some disgusting acts and like everyone else he will get his day in court to prove that he is innocent.
He's a controversial character with a lot of enemies and a lot may come out of this. He also claimed that Alan Clark - who was a Minister in Maggie Thatcher's government - had sexually abused young girls and that he managed to cover it up.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuxvwy_max-clifford-alan-clarke-pedophile-protection_news

https://www.diigo.com/item/image/3d4e0/3art

Alan Cark, wasn't he the one who had an affair with a mother and her daughter?

Sassy wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:There should be no safe haven for people who are suspected of having sexually abused children or raped a woman and where there is enough evidence to take it to trial. Max Clifford has been accused of some disgusting acts and like everyone else he will get his day in court to prove that he is innocent.
He's a controversial character with a lot of enemies and a lot may come out of this. He also claimed that Alan Clark - who was a Minister in Maggie Thatcher's government - had sexually abused young girls and that he managed to cover it up.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuxvwy_max-clifford-alan-clarke-pedophile-protection_news

https://www.diigo.com/item/image/3d4e0/3art

Alan Cark, wasn't he the one who had an affair with a mother and her daughter?

Not going to google but the name rings a bell....... something on those lines...... Smarmy guy.

Drove fast cars if my memory is up too much.

WOW, Mother and TWO daughters:

In his diaries, Alan Clark called them the coven. Yesterday, the mother and two daughters with whom the former Tory minister went to bed collected substantial damages for a false claim that they had demanded money to keep quiet about it.

Mr Clark, an unrepentant philanderer now gone to the knocking shop in the sky, recorded for posterity his liaisons with Valerie, Josephine and Alison Harkess. Ten years ago, with the secret out, they and South African judge James Harkess arrived back in London, with the husband/father saying he wanted to have Mr Clark horsewhipped.

Yesterday the Mail on Sunday paid undisclosed damages to the family after claiming that they had tried to demand money from Mr Clark in return for not revealing the affair.

Their solicitor, Laura Baglow, told Mr Justice Gray at the high court that the tabloid had suggested there had been an attempt to blackmail Mr Clark by demanding £80,000 to keep silent about his sexual relationships with Valerie Harkess and her daughters. There was no truth whatsoever in this allegation and the family were hurt and upset by the article, the court heard.

Associated Newspapers, publisher of the paper, had agreed to apologise and to pay a substantial sum in damages and costs.

Counsel for the paper, Ian Felstead, said it offered its "sincere apologies".

The offending article appeared on January 18 under the heading "A rogue and a shyster, but we could do with a few more Alan Clarks".

Several entries by Mr Clark in his diaries, first published in 1993, on the Harkesses laid the clues. The minister had once been friends with Mr Harkess, a London barrister who emigrated to South Africa in 1977.

In 1994 Valerie Harkess sold her story to the News of the World, telling of her 14-year affair with Mr Clark. Josephine said that she was seduced in 1983, and her sister Alison was said to have previously succumbed in 1979.

The former minister's long-suffering wife, Jane, reacted to the news by saying: "Quite frankly, if you bed people that I call 'below-stairs class', they go to the papers, don't they?"

It was a story of the English class system, politics, sex and a dysfunctional family. The media lapped it up.

Mr Harkess said at the time that he would have horse-whipped Mr Clark if he had known how comprehensively he had violated his honour and called Mr Clark "sick". His retort was: "I hope the girls got a good price for their story."

The Harkesses were represented by Max Clifford. Speaking from his holiday home in Spain, the media guru remembered them fondly: "The Harkesses were pure, pure panto, they were wonderful. It was an entertaining three months, and Alan Clark loved every minute of it. They genuinely felt betrayed. He swore that it [the affairs] would not come out. They went back to South Africa a lot happier, fulfilled and wealthier than when they arrived."

Even Mr Clark sensed his libido might have caused him to overstep the mark: "I deserve to be horsewhipped. It all happened a very long time ago, and I am trying to keep a low profile. I probably have a different sense of morality from most people."

The family were estimated to have made £250,000 from interviews and in 1995 Mr Harkess converted to Catholicism. Asked in 1998 by the Guardian how he would react if he met Mr Clark (who died in 1999), the judge replied: "I would greet him as a fellow Christian. I forgave him some time ago."

Can we go to Ritz? Why? To go to bed...

October 13 1973
Went on television for Points West BBC and hope did some good, though not plugging the party line. Valerie there plus usual accoutrements of regularised intimacy which make me so jealous (in this case a geriatric Great-Uncle in Holy Orders who is presumably being cultivated for a hand-out). Really, too much. If one could paraphrase Haig's epigram on Derby ... "she is like a feather cushion, carrying the imprint of the last person to roll on her"

June 13 1983
In London I collected the coven and off we went to Brooks's for dinner. At intervals Joei said, "Gosh, Al, are you really a minister, zowee." Valerie was less forthcoming. Ali sulked and sneered. Driving away, we went past the Ritz and Joei said, "Gosh, is that the Ritz? I wish we could go in there." "Why?" "To go to bed, of course." I was thoughtful. I have always been culpably weak in such matters

July 6 1983
... that evening I had been to Joei's party, and felt old and passé. Very handsome young men everywhere. Joei lounged and struck attitudes; she's going through a stage when she thinks she's Nancy Cunard. Ali, though friendly, was for some reason tearful

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/jun/12/uk.books

FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   How old were they!

Another Tory minister who was at it, I hope they carry on winkling them out. No wonder Thatcher stood up for the head of PIE in the HOC, even after he was convicted.

Sassy wrote:Another Tory minister who was at it, I hope they carry on winkling them out.   No wonder Thatcher stood up for the head of PIE in the HOC, even after he was convicted.

And as well as Alan Clark, Savile was also getting invited to Chequers every Christmas and Leon Brittan was refusing to ban PIE and Patrick Rock was also sniffing around and a Conservative group was also advertising the Elm guest house you really have to wonder what the hell was going at the time.

Irn Bru wrote:

Sassy wrote:Another Tory minister who was at it, I hope they carry on winkling them out.   No wonder Thatcher stood up for the head of PIE in the HOC, even after he was convicted.

And as well as Alan Clark, Savile was also getting invited to Chequers every Christmas and Leon Brittan was refusing to ban PIE and Patrick Rock was also sniffing around and a Conservative group was also advertising the Elm guest house you really have to wonder what the hell was going at the time.

Yes I reckon Thatcher was paying him to do everything he did..

recanter wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:

And as well as Alan Clark, Savile was also getting invited to Chequers every Christmas and Leon Brittan was refusing to ban PIE and Patrick Rock was also sniffing around and a Conservative group was also advertising the Elm guest house you really have to wonder what the hell was going at the time.

Yes I reckon Thatcher was paying him to do everything he did..

Would you have gone into the public domain before Margret had died.................. I doubt it....... Could have landed you in trouble.

beware who watches surfs follows and has eyes on all blogs

There was a lot about Elm House Gerbs and what went on there, but was conveniently dropped.   However, it's not being dropped anymore, and Leon Brittain might have 'lost' the papers in the files, but the files and their titles were retained, real cover up.   Rock is probably the first of many, and isn't it amazing that the Mail only ran it for one day!