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Sir Cliff Richard felt ‘violent hate’ towards man who accused him of child abuse-Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro
Sir Cliff speaks about the time in a new documentary.
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Sir Cliff Richard has opened up about his feelings towards to the man who claimed to police the hitmaker had sexually assaulted him when he was a child.
A Metropolitan Police operation, which was set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal to investigate historical sexual assault claims, targeted the 81-year-old.
After officers had received an allegation of a historical sex offence involving a boy under 16 dating back to the 1980s in South Yorkshire, they searched the 81-year-old’s Berkshire home.
The Summer Holiday performer strongly denied the claims and was never arrested or charged after the sweep, which was part of Operation Yewtree.
Sir Cliff was later awarded compensation from the South Yorkshire Police and the BBC over the coverage of the case.
The star has spoken about the impact and toll of the investigation in Channel 4 documentary The Accused: National Treasures on Trial, which airs tonight.
Speaking to programme makers, Sir Cliff says: ‘You cannot stop thinking about it. Friends came [to Portugal] to visit and that was great, we laughed together, we played tennis together and then you go to bed.
Sir Cliff appears in a C4 documentary (Picture: Channel 4)
‘And then it all crowds back at you, how could someone do this? I am feeling hate, a violent hate towards him, what I’d do with him if I ever saw him, and I thought I can’t live like this.
‘I seem to remember one headline that really bothered me and it just simply said “Sir Cliff molests underage boy”. Not allegedly. It’s a lie. I didn’t do that to a young boy.
‘I prayed every night. I said he knows it’s not true, I know it’s not true and God knows it’s not true.’
Sir Cliff opens up in the programme (Picture: Channel 4)
The Devil Woman hitmaker also revealed he ‘came out in shingles all over my head’ due to the stress of the case.
‘Fortunately, a local doctor in Portugal diagnosed it. After about the third visit he said it’s coming down your forehead, you don’t want to get it in your eyes because it can blind you. I said, “How do you get shingles?” He just looked at me, gave a little tiny smile and said, “stress,”’ he explained.
In addition to the Move It hitmaker, the programme will follow radio DJs Paul Gambaccini and Neil Fox, who were also falsely accused of historical sex offences.
Paul was arrested in October 2013 over a claim that he sexually assaulted two teenage boys as part of Operation Yewtree.
The 73-year-old, a regular fixture on the airwaves for decades, spent a year on bail before the case was dropped.
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Meanwhile, former Capital FM presenter Neil was accused of eight counts of indecent assault and two of sexual assault dating back to the late 1980s, involving young fans and colleagues.
The 61-year-old was cleared of all 10 counts at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in December 2015.
The Accused: National Treasures on Trial airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 4 and All4.
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