Cliff Richard felt violated by BBC’s raid footage says TV star Gloria
TV PRESENTER Gloria Hunniford told a court yesterday how her close friend Sir Cliff Richard felt “violated and betrayed” by the BBC’s live footage of police searching his apartment.
Gloria Hunniford: Cliff Richard fell into my arms crying after trial
Giving evidence at the High Court in London, she said the singer seemed “utterly distraught”. Ms Hunniford, 78, revealed her concerns in a written witness statement read at Sir Cliff’s privacy trial against the BBC.
She told Mr Justice Mann she had watched the BBC report of the police search in August 2014, staged after a sex abuse allegation, in shock.
“I could not believe what I was seeing,” she said.
“He (Sir Cliff) is a gentle and kind soul and I was extremely worried about how he would be reacting.
Cliff Richard felt violated by BBC’s raid footage says Gloria Hunniford
He cannot stop talking about how violated and betrayed he feels about the BBC decision to broadcast the police search of his apartment
“He seemed utterly distraught that the search and allegations against him had been broadcast so widely around the world, and about what everyone must be thinking about him.”
Ms Hunniford said in recent months Sir Cliff “seems more his old self and is looking a lot better”, but added: “However, he cannot stop talking about how violated and betrayed he feels about the BBC decision to broadcast the police search of his apartment and create the media storm that ensued.”
Sir Cliff, 77, had told the judge BBC coverage of the police raid on his home in Sunningdale, Berks, while he was out of the country left him feeling “forever tainted”.
He said seeing footage of the search from his villa in Portugal was like “watching burglars” going through his belongings.
Cliff Richard and Gloria Hunniford
Earlier, the singer’s lawyers told the court that the BBC had obtained the information about a sex assault allegation from a “tainted” police source.
They said the information came from someone connected to Operation Yewtree, a wider Metropolitan Police inquiry into abuse claims. Justin Rushbrooke QC, leading Sir Cliff’s legal team, said lawyers knew “for a fact” that “Yewtree was the source”.
They suggested the journalist who obtained the information must have known it had been “improperly” released by someone involved in a “highly sensitive” police operation and said the source was “tainted”.
Another lawyer said South Yorkshire Police had carried out an “astonishingly long” investigation into Sir Cliff, who waited about two years before learning he would face no charges.
Sir Cliff is suing over BBC coverage of the police search. South Yorkshire Police has paid him £400,000 to settle a claim against the force, but his lawyers want damages at the “top end” of the scale from the BBC.
BBC bosses say coverage of the search was accurate and in good faith.
The case continues.