ONE of the alleged victims of public relations guru Max Clifford described him as a "dirty old b******" and a "pervert", a court heard.
A friend and ex-colleague of the woman recalled how Mr Clifford's name came up in conversation about six years ago. The woman told the jury at Southwark Crown Court the alleged victim described how he indecently assaulted her when she was 14 after they met at a Wimpy burger bar in London.
It is claimed the incident took place in 1966, when Mr Clifford was in his early 20s.
Mr Clifford, 70, from Hersham, Surrey, who listened to the evidence through a hearing loop, is accused of a total of 11 counts of indecent assault against seven women and girls. He denies all the charges, and says he would not have gone to a Wimpy.
The friend of the alleged victim told the jury Mr Clifford appeared on television at their office and another colleague commented he was "such a lovely man".
The alleged victim, who cannot be named, then began to describe her incident with him, said her friend. "Her words to me were, 'He's not that bloody lovely, he's not that nice, he's a bloody pervert'."
Her friend said she went on to give her "a brief description of an incident" where Mr Clifford "tried it on" and "started touching" her.
The court heard claims on Monday that Mr Clifford drove her to an alleyway "and then he tried to force himself" on her before she escaped.
In the witness box yesterday the alleged victim's friend recalled that she said to her: "Well, it just shows these people aren't whiter than white. Her words were, 'He's just a dirty old b******'."
The court also heard from the alleged victim's daughter, who said her mother mentioned Mr Clifford several times when she saw him on television. She said: "She would make the odd comment, 'Well, I know something about him, I had an experience with him'."
The daughter went on: "She would say, 'Well, there's some skeletons in his closet'."
The trial continues.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article