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Max Clifford trial: Woman claims assault in taxi | |
(about 7 hours later) | |
Max Clifford "launched himself" at a woman he sexually assaulted in a taxi, his trial has heard. | |
The woman, who was 19 at the time, told Southwark Crown Court Mr Clifford had grabbed her breasts and tried to kiss her during a taxi ride in 1978. | |
He responded with "verbal abuse" when she tried to "push him off", she said. | |
Mr Clifford, 70, from Hersham, Surrey, denies 11 counts of indecent assault relating to seven alleged victims, aged from 14 to 19, between 1966 and 1984. | Mr Clifford, 70, from Hersham, Surrey, denies 11 counts of indecent assault relating to seven alleged victims, aged from 14 to 19, between 1966 and 1984. |
Earlier, the trial heard allegations Mr Clifford told one 15-year-old girl that the actress Julie Christie had encouraged him to take her virginity. | |
Saying 'horrible things' | |
Mr Clifford called the 19-year-old woman and asked her to come to his office when she was working for a recruitment agency in 1978, the London court was told. | |
Giving evidence, she said Mr Clifford had wanted her to find him a new personal assistant, but later interviewed her for the job in a five-hour meeting - during which he spoke about clients including the late actor Oliver Reed. | |
He told her about Mr Reed's "problematic" sexual preferences, the court heard. | |
"I remember him specifically saying about Oliver Reed, that he liked young girls, but I don't remember any specifics of the others," she said. | |
After the meeting, she said she shared a cab with Mr Clifford, who then accosted her. | |
"On the journey he started trying to kiss me," she said. "He kind of launched himself at me actually, and started trying to kiss me on the mouth, which I said no to." | |
"I tried to push him off and hold him off," she said, adding that he was then verbally abusive. | |
"He was insulting, he was saying horrible things to me. He said I had led him on," she said. | |
Cross-examined about the incident, the woman denied that she had "wanted" his advances. | |
Said she had not told police at the time because, prior to Mr Clifford's arrest last year on suspicion of similar offences, she had feared she would not believed. | |
'Becoming obsessed' | |
The court earlier heard from a woman who claims the publicist repeatedly abused her when she was 15. | |
"He asked me which actors I liked. I said Julie Christie," the woman told jurors. | |
"He said that he was her agent and he said he talked regularly to her and mentioned her on several occasions." | |
She continued: "I remember him saying to me he had spoken to Julie Christie and - because this had happened to her as well, by that presumably he meant the abuse that he was doing to me - she said he should take my virginity because it would be my first and then I would fall in love with him and be 100% loyal to him." | |
The woman also denied being "obsessed" with Mr Clifford. | |
A psychotherapist told the court that she had treated the alleged victim in 2011. She said her client had looked like "she might vomit" as she named Mr Clifford. | |
"She didn't give precise details of the abuse but it was too horrific for her," the counsellor said. | "She didn't give precise details of the abuse but it was too horrific for her," the counsellor said. |
Under cross-examination, the psychotherapist confirmed she had written in her post-session notes that her client "feels she's becoming obsessed by this". | Under cross-examination, the psychotherapist confirmed she had written in her post-session notes that her client "feels she's becoming obsessed by this". |
So far three women, none of whom can be identified, have given evidence against Mr Clifford. | |
The trial continues. | |