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Cliff Richard

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mushroom25 | 07:17 Tue 21st Jun 2016 | News
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has he been treated appallingly by the authorities, and the media?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3651264/I-thought-going-die-Cleared-two-years-hell-Cliff-Richard-reveals-wrecked-health-lays-bare-raw-fury-police-BBC-plans-sue.html
....or does the pursuit of child protection at all costs fully justify such tactics and treatment?

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//Again, the police have not done anything wrong, //

is tipping off the news agencies that they're about to make an arrest a legitimate service offered by the police? why only the BBC? shouldn't tip offs - since the police are a public body - be the subject of sealed bids, with the information going to the highest bidder?
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andy-hughes, what does that snippet about gloria hunniford bring to a discussion about the police/media treatment of alleged offenders?
Making light of this situation is shameful. The man has been treated utterly appallingly and those responsible should be brought to book.
Andy....don't condemn her for talking about her daughter. It eases grief and grief never leaves.
andy hughes, i dont think cliff is exactly in the kind of mood to wear nice clothes at this moment in time, imho.
I just hope that all that other tripe that has been circulating on the internet for years is removed
It's more the fact that he was in Portugal when he got th call that something was going on and then turned on his TV to see the police raiding his house with a BBC crew filming it!
Gromit: "... the police have not done anything wrong, they have done their duty. " - it's the police's duty to hound an innocent man for 2 years on no evidence? Is it not also their duty to first do some sort of investigation on the validity of the accuser and what they are saying before they drag someone through the nettles? These cases have demonstrated that they should name the accuser too.
// why, as a multi-millionaire with access to the world's top designer, does Sir Cliff consistently wear such horrible clothes?//

well he could be charged with 'possession of an offensive wardrobe'
a true fashion crime

3T you just have to grin and bear it ...
in my case light would have had to travel around corners AND I would have had to hover 6' in the air....
and why were you in the adjoining property ? because I own it and the tenant had just died ......
Are the police now the tool of compo seeking lowlives who now know they have unlimited power to ruin lives at a whim?
I agree he has been through it given that the police/media was setting him up to be considered guilty before any charge or proper investigation.

The problem is that any compensation will come from the public purse, from you and I the taxpayers, and we didn't do anything (well except pay royalties again and again every time we want a record of some recording work that was done, and made money on, years ago, but for which artistes continue to pocket royalties and have this weird idea it is right, even though most of us don't get paid again and again for the rest of our life for work we did ages ago).

I think a public apology probably covers it, given we can not turn the clock back and ensure it never happened.
Poor man, my heart bleeds for him. This wil never leave him.
Poor old Cliff.
Unfortunately, mud sticks, and a lot of people will always have their doubts.
I was at a funeral last week where one of his songs was played. The family said they were really worried in case Cliff got charged before the funeral!
The police most certainly have done something wrong.

Certainly they have a duty to investigate allegations. But the decision to inform the BBC in time for them to get their news team on site was obviously taken at a high level. A lowly plod would not have done so (a couple of years ago a PC was jailed for, I think, six months for informing a criminal that a search warrant was about to be executed on his house). They should also have taken considerably less than two years to establish that Sir Cliff’s accuser was a despicable chancer.

I have said before on AB that I am extremely uneasy about investigations and prosecutions involving "historical sex abuse". There seems to be an attitude among the police that all accusations are taken at face value and the names of the alleged perpetrators trashed without any evidence.
// is tipping off the news agencies that they're about to make an arrest a legitimate service offered by the police? why only the BBC? shouldn't tip offs - since the police are a public body - be the subject of sealed bids, with the information going to the highest bidder? //

First of all, the media were not officially told by the police. The impending raid was leaked by someone in the know, within the police. Perhaps that should be punishable with stict sanctions for any service police officer caught tipping off.

Second, it was not just the BBC privvy to fore knowledge of the raid on Cliff's house. The whole of the national press and their photographers were there too. The BBC used an helicopter to stream the raid live, but they were not the only news organisation there.

This editorial in the Guardian, written shortly after the raid, is worth a read.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/15/guardian-view-cliff-richard-search
New Judge, how events unfolded...

// 3.1 South Yorkshire Police investigation
Between March and June 2014 there had been discussions between the MPS Operation Yewtree team and SYP before an agreement was reached on 2 July 2014 that the investigation into Sir Cliff Richard by SYP was ready to proceed. The alleged offence had occurred in Sheffield in the 1980s. Detective Superintendent Matt Fenwick was appointed Senior Investigating Officer under the command of Jo Byrne, Assistant Chief Constable (Protective Services).

3.2 Phone call from Dan Johnson
On 14 July 2014 Carrie Goodwin, the Head of Communications for SYP, received a phone call from Dan Johnson, a regional correspondent for the BBC, who told her he wanted to discuss four matters with her including an investigation into Sir Cliff Richard. According to Carrie Goodwin, Dan Johnson told her that he had information that SYP were investigating Sir Cliff Richard and that he knew a considerable amount of detail concerning the allegation. She firmly maintains that he told her in the phone call that he had obtained the information from a source in Operation Yewtree and that he was in a position to broadcast the story.

3.3 Meeting with Dan Johnson
A meeting was arranged for the following day, 15 July 2014, at SYP HQ between Carrie Goodwin, Detective Superintendent Matt Fenwick and Dan Johnson. According to Carrie Goodwin and Matt Fenwick, Dan Johnson reiterated that he had obtained information about the SYP investigation into Sir Cliff Richard from a source in Operation Yewtree and that he was in a position to proceed with the story. Carrie Goodwin and Matt Fenwick were concerned that if the BBC broadcast the story before a search of Sir Cliff Richard’s UK residence took place then evidence could be lost. It was agreed by Carrie Goodwin and Matt Fenwick that SYP would inform Dan Johnson of the date and location of the search if he would not publish the story before the execution of the warrant. At that meeting it was confirmed to Dan Johnson that the information he had was broadly correct. The location of the search was not known at that time.

3.4 Meeting between the Chief Constable and Carrie Goodwin
On 15 July 2015 Carrie Goodwin met with the Chef Constable (CC) after her meeting with Dan Johnson. She informed him of Dan Johnson’s knowledge of the investigation and the agreement that had been reached. They discussed the College of Policing Guidance On Relationships with the Media [to be referred hereafter as the ‘CoP Guidance’] and they discussed the options available to them. They agreed that Dan Johnson would not accompany SYP on the search but that he would be told when it was taking place. //

http://www.southyorkshire-pcc.gov.uk/Document-Library/FOI/Trotter-Review.pdf

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