What is Cliff Richard doing now?

Cliff Richard will not face charges over sexual abuse allegations

16 June

Sir Cliff Richard will not face charges related to historical sexual abuse claims due to lack of evidence, the Crown Prosecution Service has announced.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Prosecutors said they worked with police to carefully review evidence related to separate allegations made by four men and dating between 1958 and 1983.

"We have decided that there is insufficient evidence to prosecute," Martin Goldman, chief crown prosecutor for Yorkshire and Humberside, said in a statement.

"The complainants have been informed and provided with a full explanation in writing," he added.

The allegations first came to the world's attention in 2014, when the BBC broadcast live footage of a police raid on Richard's mansion in Berkshire, while he was away on holiday in Portugal.

Richard, 75, was interviewed several times by police but never arrested or charged. He has always professed his innocence.

Responding to the news, the singer issued a strongly worded statement saying he was "obviously thrilled that the vile accusations and the resulting investigation have finally been brought to a close".

However, he added that he "cannot understand why it has taken so long to get to this point".

He also argued that the prosecutors' statement "does not go far enough" because "it doesn't expressly state that I am innocent".

Saying that his reputation may never recover, he called for people facing such allegations to have their identities kept secret until charged, except in exceptional circumstances.

However, the BBC's home affairs correspondent, Danny Shaw, argues "this is not necessarily the end" of the matter.

"The CPS makes that quite clear in its statement," he told the broadcaster's Victoria Derbyshire show. "Every complainant has the right to a review of a decision not to bring charges."

Cliff Richard sex abuse claims: CPS considers bringing charges

11 May

Prosecutors are considering whether to bring charges against Sir Cliff Richard in relation to allegations of historic sex abuse.

Detectives investigating the claims against the veteran entertainer have been "coming under pressure to wind up the two-year probe", reports the Daily Telegraph.

The Crown Prosecution Service yesterday confirmed it had received a "full file of evidence" from South Yorkshire Police.

"We will now carefully consider its contents in order to establish whether there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and whether it is in the public interest to do so," it said.

Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt reports that it is unclear how many allegations there are against the 75-year-old singer. "We think there are two," he said.

One claim reportedly relates to the alleged abuse of a 15-year-old boy at an event in Sheffield in 1985 led by US evangelist Billy Graham.

Details of the investigation first emerged in August 2014, when the BBC broadcast live footage of a police raid on the singer's mansion in Berkshire while he was away on holiday in Portugal.

Richard has been questioned twice in connection to historic sex abuse claims, once in 2014 and again last year, but has never been arrested or charged.

He has always professed his innocence and says the allegations are "absurd and untrue".

A spokesperson for the singer refused to respond to the latest development. "It would be inappropriate to comment while the matter is under review," he said.

Sir Cliff Richard re-questioned by police over 1980s sex crime claim

06 November

Sir Cliff Richard has been re-interviewed by South Yorkshire police over claims he committed a sex crime involving a young boy in the 1980s, his spokesman has claimed.

The singer and entertainer had previously been questioned over the offence under caution last year but was not arrested or charged.

Now it has emerged that Richard has been interviewed by police a second time over the incident.

"Sir Cliff Richard voluntarily met with and was interviewed by members of South Yorkshire police. He was not arrested or charged, nor has he ever been," his spokesman said.

"He cooperated fully with officers and answered the questions put to him. Other than restating that the allegations are completely false and that he will continue to cooperate fully with the police, it would not be appropriate for Sir Cliff to say anything further at this time."

The Guardian notes that the news follows reports earlier this year that the investigation into the 75-year-old singer has expanded to look into more than one allegation.

"The chief constable of South Yorkshire police, David Crompton, said in a letter to Keith Vaz, chair of the home affairs select committee, that detectives were involved in a growing inquiry into allegations against the singer, who denied all wrongdoing," the paper claims.

The Independent reports that following the publication of the letter, the veteran entertainer's lawyers roundly criticised the home affairs select committee, saying its disclosure "caused him a further round of unnecessary and extremely damaging media coverage".

Since the allegations first emerged, Richard has continued to profess his innocence, saying that the claims against him were "absurd and untrue" and he had "never, in my life, assaulted anyone".

Cliff Richard: police drop one of three inquiries, claims friend

21 September

Police have dropped one of the three investigations into alleged sex abuse by Sir Cliff Richard, according to reports.

The singer provided the police with evidence that he was never alone on the days when two men allege he attacked them in separate incidents in the 1980s, an unnamed friend told The Sunday Times.

The evidence appears to refute claims that Richard assaulted a 15-year-old at a Billy Graham rally in Sheffield in 1985 and another alleged victim who said he took part in the making of a music video with the star in 1981.

Richard, who has not been arrested or charged, is yet to comment, while South Yorkshire Police said it "won't be providing a running commentary on the investigation". The force added that "the inquiry continues and inquiries are ongoing".

The singer's home in Sunningdale, Berkshire, was searched by police in August last year while he was away in Portugal, with footage of the raid broadcast live on the BBC.

The Sunday Times points out that seven celebrities, including Freddie Starr and Paul Gambaccini, have been exonerated after facing historical abuse accusations under the overarching police inquiry Operation Yewtree.

The singer, who has vehemently denied the claims and called them "absurd", is preparing for a UK concert tour to mark his 75th birthday culminating in five nights at the Royal Albert Hall.

Cliff Richard to sell homes searched by Yewtree police

21 May

Sir Cliff Richard has put his Berkshire home on the market for £4.75 million, nine months after police were filmed searching the property in connection to an allegation of sexual assault.

The 74 year-old star watched from his holiday home in the Algarve as South Yorkshire police entered the mansion where he has lived since 2008, while BBC helicopters provided rolling coverage of the raid.

Cilla Black, a long-term friend of Richard, said that the experience has left him haunted and unable to continue living in the house.

"It's the saddest thing for him, but he had to do it," Black, 71, told the Daily Telegraph. "Cliff is not all right, not at all. He will never, ever go back there again. I don't blame him."

The search was carried out in conjunction with an allegation that the singer sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy at a Christian rally organised by the American evangelical Billy Graham in Sheffield in 1985. Richard denies any involvement.

South Yorkshire police came under fire over the controversial deal with the BBC, which allowed the broadcaster to film the search as it took place. In return, the BBC agreed to hold back a news item revealing that an allegation of historic sex abuse by Richard was being investigated as part of Operation Yewtree until after the raid.

In defence of the arrangement, the force claimed that it feared that crucial evidence might be compromised or lost if the allegation was made public before the police search could be carried out.

Nevertheless, a report compiled by former chief constable Andy Trotter questioned the justification for the deal, saying that it was unlikely that the BBC would have run such a story without police co-operation. Trotter also found that the force had caused 'unnecessary distress' to Richard and that the star 'should not have been informed of the allegations through the media'.

Earlier this year, it was announced that the inquiry surrounding the former rock and roll star had increased "significantly" and now involved multiple allegations. Richard has been interviewed by police, but no formal charges have been brought against him. He continues to maintain that any accusations of sexual misconduct are "absurd and untrue".