Cliff Richard breaks down in tears as he describes how he feared heart attack over BBC coverage of sex claims
SIR Cliff Richard broke down in tears as he told the High Court he feared he would suffer a heart attack and said he felt “forever tainted” by the allegations of a sex assault and high profile police raid on his home.
The well-known singer, 77, claimed his health had suffered and he had never lived in the apartment in Sunningdale, Berkshire, since as it had been “contaminated,” he told a High Court judge.
Sir Cliff has taken legal action over the BBC’s extensive coverage of the police search in August 2014 which followed after allegations of a sex assault had been made.
His legal team claim the corporation’s coverage was a “very serious invasion” of privacy while the BBC disputes the claim, saying the search was accurate and in good faith.
In a witness statement, Sir Cliff said: “At one point ... I actually thought I was going to have a heart attack or stroke."
Recalling his reaction to the broadcast, he said: “I literally lost the power to stand. I collapsed in the kitchen. Nothing like it had ever happened to me before. I was in despair and felt hopeless and helpless.
“I felt as though I was in a hole with no means of getting out and I was on my knees in the kitchen sobbing.
“At that moment I couldn’t see how I could face the future, my friends or my family. Although I’d done nothing wrong it felt like the world, everyone who knew me, everywhere I had been, must believe I had. Or at least was talking about whether I’d done it.”
He added: "It felt as though everything I had worked for during my life - trying to live as honestly and honourably as I could - was being torn apart," he said.
"I felt forever tainted. I still do."
Sir Cliff said he suffered during the 22 months he had to wait to learn that no further action was going to be taken.
He said: "During the day there was an ever present knot in my stomach.”
"I'd wake up in the middle of the night, going over things in my head again and again."
He said: “Sometimes I looked in the mirror and it felt like someone else — a much older version of myself — was looking back at me.”
He added: “It probably goes without saying that all this disruption caused me an unbelievable amount of hurt and pain.
“It felt like torture sustained over a period of almost two years.
"It felt as though everything I’d done, everything I’d built and worked to achieve was being torn down. Like life itself was coming to an end."
“My health suffered both mentally and physically. At one point I thought I was going to have a heart attack or stroke.”
The national icon once famously serenaded crowds during the annual Wimbledon tennis tournament and was a regular in the court-side seats.
But he said: “I took the decision not to attend Wimbledon that year (2015). It would be the first time that I had missed it in 20 years or so.
“I did not want my attendance to create difficulties or cause problems for the organisers in any way.
“I felt ashamed at having to do so and it aggravated me that I could not attend.”
The famous singer said he had felt unable to return to his Berks home and only went back to collect his belongings.
He said: "In my mind it had become contaminated. I didn't feel comfortable there any longer. I have in fact been burgled before, and this for me was a worse experience."
A man made an allegation to the Metropolitan Police in late 2013, saying he had been sexually assaulted by Sir Cliff, during an event featuring evangelist Billy Graham at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane football stadium, when a child in 1985.
A BBC spokesman has said that the BBC had reported Sir Cliff's "full denial of the allegations at every stage".
After giving evidence at the ongoing trial Sir Cliff left the High Court with celebrity pal Gloria Hunniford.
The trial began yesterday over his wrangle with the BBC over its "invasive" coverage of a sexual assault allegation against him.
In court yesterday, Sir Cliff stared straight ahead, avoiding the screens, and looked emotional as the clips were played.
Sir Cliff, who denied wrongdoing and was not charged with any offence, said he suffered "profound and long-lasting damage" as a result of the coverage and wants damages.
The BBC disputes the claims. Bosses say coverage of the search was accurate and in good faith.
BBC editors have said they will ";defend ourselves vigorously".
The court has heard how Beeb reporter Dan Johnson brokered a deal with cops based on “scant” information from a tainted source — the Met’s infamous Operation Yewtree - to secure his exclusive report on the police raid.
He allegedly insisted the BBC would publish details of the investigation into Sir Cliff before police were ready unless they furnished him with details about the search. Sir Cliff slammed journalists from the corporation yesterday for acting as if they were “above the law” and “above Magna Carta”.
By the time prosecutors finally announced he would face no charges in 2016, he had faced separate claims from four men — all of which were dismissed. One accuser was a convicted sex offender.
"In a nutshell, it is Sir Cliff's case that the BBC's coverage of the search was an invasion - indeed a very serious invasion - of his privacy, for which there was no lawful justification," barrister Justin Rushbrooke QC, who is leading Sir Cliff's legal team, told the judge in a written statement.
"It is hard to encapsulate in words the sense of panic and powerlessness that must have been induced in him on 14 August 2014 when he realised that the BBC were relaying instantaneously and indiscriminately around the world highly sensitive and damaging information concerning himself - all based upon an allegation of serious criminal conduct which he knew to be entirely false."
He told the judge: "What we are talking about is using TV cameras to spy into someone's home at the time when their target is in the most vulnerable position imaginable, and then serve it up to the British public as the most sensational story imaginable."
Mr Rushbrooke said Sir Cliff had been left with "no option" but to take legal action.
The star told Mr Justice Mann: “The police were doing a job that police are supposed to do.
“The BBC didn’t just name me here, it went everywhere that I have ever been. I felt that my name was smeared.
“Of course the police didn’t do that to me, the BBC did. I don’t know if I’ll ever recover.”
He recalled talking to himself and questioning whether he was going “crazy”. Describing his first viewing of the TV coverage, Sir Cliff said: “I could see the police going through the drawers in one of the rooms of my apartment.
“I felt confused — disturbed and very upset. It was like I was watching burglars going through my personal belongings.” The star revealed his bid to restore his reputation following the “vile allegation” — now exposed as a “lie” — has already cost him £3.4million.
He added: “What the BBC did to me was very wrong. I was portrayed as a sex offender around the world before I had even been questioned by police.”
And he said: “I felt the publicity stemming from the BBC’s broadcast had taken away from me what I was and what I was known as before — a confident and respected artist and a good ambassador for this country. I felt forever tainted, I still do.”
Sir Cliff, who gave evidence for more than an hour yesterday, said the corporation has never apologised, instead “boasting” its report was “scoop of the year”.
Detail of the case has emerged at preliminary hearings.
Lawyers have told Mr Justice Mann that, in late 2013, a man made an allegation to the Metropolitan Police, saying he had been sexually assaulted by Sir Cliff at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane football stadium in Sheffield when a child in 1985.
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Metropolitan Police officers passed the allegation to South Yorkshire Police in July 2014.
Sir Cliff denied the allegation and in June 2016 prosecutors announced that he would face no charges.
A BBC spokesman has said the broadcaster had reported Sir Cliff's "full denial of the allegations at every stage".
Sir Cliff had also sued South Yorkshire Police.
But Mr Justice Mann has been told that that dispute was settled after the force agreed to pay the singer "substantial" damages.
The trial is expected to last ten days.
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