Max Clifford is no sexual predator, barrister tells court

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/10/max-clifford-no-sexual-predator-barrister-court

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Claims that Max Clifford is a sexual predator are the "stuff of fiction", his barrister has said.

Richard Horwell QC said any suggestion that the publicist abused young women in the 1970s and 1980s would have spread "at the speed of electricity", as he delivered his closing speech at London's Southwark crown court.

Clifford, 71, is standing trial accused of 11 counts of indecent assault against seven girls and women – all of which he denies.

Horwell said: "Men do not suddenly change from being caring gentlemen to sexual predatory monsters and then back again. That is the stuff of fiction, not real life."

Horwell told the jury Clifford had no previous convictions, cautions, reprimands or warnings.

"How does that fit with the sexual predator the prosecution say he is?" he said. "Would not this sexual predator have been caught out once or twice in his life? Leopards don't change their spots, we are often told, and people do not change their character.

"If a man has a perverted sexual drive, if he is a paedophile, because that is what is alleged, that tendency is going to be with him throughout his life."

Horwell said character witnesses for Clifford had spoken of an honest man with integrity and who gave his time and energy to charity work.

"Not manufactured publicity on the front page of Hello! magazine but true care and understanding," he said.

"He was employed in the music industry in the early 1960s. If he found young girls attractive, if he was looking for vulnerable young woman, isn't Top of the Pops the place he would have been?"

Referring to Clifford's PR work, Horwell said: "If he was this wicked predator, news would have spread through the industry at the speed of electricity. We suggest if he had this tendency, his career would have been over almost as soon as it started."

Horwell told the jury: "There is an enormous amount of pressure on the prosecution in this case. There is none on you.

"A careful assessment of the evidence can only result in one conclusion and that is Mr Clifford is not guilty on each of these counts."

Recalling Clifford's evidence in the trial, Horwell said: "After an investigation that lasted some 18 months, you might expect something to rattle Mr Clifford in the witness box but there was nothing to undermine his evidence in any way."

One of the alleged victims said in her evidence she thought Clifford was well-endowed and his penis was "enormous", after others had claimed it was "tiny".

The woman's remark that her dentist had told her she had a small mouth as she gave her evidence about Clifford's penis prompted laughter from the jury at a previous hearing.

"Your reaction was more than justified," Horwell said. "It was a farcical answer."

Horwell said the prosecution's claim that Clifford told the managers of a London nightclub of his plan to get a dancer to perform a sex act on him before carrying out the assault was "nonsense".

"Let's write off the whole of mankind as misogynous," he said.

The allegation "defamed" the nightclub managers with "vile accusations", Horwell said.

"There's not a shred of evidence to support this odious piece of fiction," he added.

Wearing a blue blazer and white shirt, Clifford, from Hersham in Surrey, listened from the dock with the aid of a hearing loop.

His daughter Louise, who has given evidence in the trial, sat in the public gallery.

The trial was adjourned until Friday.