Sir Cliff Richard and DJ Paul Gambaccini today called for a ‘re-balancing of the legal system’ as they helped launch a petition to try to force a change in the law to give those accused of sexual offences anonymity until they are charged.
Sir Cliff said today that he did not sleep properly for four years, came out in shingles all over his face and head, and felt like he had been hung out to dry by the BBC.
The petition attracted more than 3,000 signatures by the time it was officially launched in Westminster on Monday.
Speaking to reporters at the launch event in Victoria Tower Gardens, Sir Cliff said he did not sleep properly for four years, came out in shingles all over his face and head, and felt like he had been ‘hung out to dry’.
He said ‘no smoke without fire’ was a ‘stupid saying’, adding: ‘People can be evil enough to tell a lie about an innocent person.’
Sir Cliff Richard speaks at an event in Westminster, London, to launch a campaign for a ban on naming sexual crime suspects unless they are charged
DJ Paul Gambaccini (left), Daniel Janner, son of Greville Janner, and Sir Cliff Richard at an event in Westminster, London, to launch a campaign for a ban on naming sexual crime suspects unless they are charged.
Standing alongside Mr Gambaccini, Sir Cliff added: ‘We have both been through the mill. When you know you didn’t do it, you feel you’re in a hole you can’t get you of.’
He added: ‘People can be evil enough to tell a lie about an innocent person.’
Speaking to reporters at the launch event for the petition for anonymity for those accused of sex offences until charged, Mr Gambaccini said he used to love the UK until he was ‘betrayed’ by law enforcement agencies over ‘preposterous’ allegations.
He said his family ‘did not deserve to be hit over the head with a sledge hammer’ when they were drawn into the matter when contacted by the press over the allegations.
Sir Cliff said today that he did not sleep properly for four years, came out in shingles all over his face and head, and felt like he had been hung out to dry by the BBC.
He said: ‘People who have been going through the system continue to send us emails and letters.
‘Please help us and please help me. Help me to love this country as much as I once did.’
Sir Cliff added there were hundreds if not thousands of people who had been affected in the same way and he had heard ‘heartbreaking stories’ from people who had spent time in prison after being wrongly accused.
The singer thanked the public for supporting him, adding: ‘My fans have more sense than I thought.
‘Will I ever get over it? I can get past it, I am past it. I’m on tour now, I’m having the most wonderful time. But will I ever get over it?
‘I didn’t realise how much it had affected me. I won my case hands down but I felt no jubilation. It was a terrible, terrible time.’
Earlier Paul Gambaccini warned of a ‘false allegation crisis’, as he and Sir Cliff prepared to launch a petition calling for anonymity for sexual offence suspects.
Radio presenter Gambaccini was accused of sexually assaulting two boys when he was arrested in October 2013 as part of Operation Yewtree, which was set up in the wake of revelations about paedophile Jimmy Savile.
Sir Cliff and Mr Gambaccini, who both had cases against them dropped, are hoping to win a debate in Parliament on the issue
He spent a year on bail before the case was dropped.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he wants ‘a balancing of something which has gone out of balance’.
‘At the moment accusers have life-long anonymity and the accused have no seconds of anonymity. And this does, unfortunately, encourage everyone from liars to lunatics to make some false accusations and get in on the action,’ he said.
Critics of the Falsely Accused Individuals for Reform (Fair) pressure group’s proposals say it could prevent genuine victims speaking out.
Gambaccini accepted that publicity surrounding suspects can encourage accusers to come forward, as was the case with black cab rapist John Worboys.
‘This is not a competition, who has been hurt the most,’ he said.
‘There are actually two crises – one is a sex abuse crisis and the other is a false allegation crisis. And anyone who has been wronged, no matter what way, empathise with other people who have been wronged.
‘If there is a strong case, as there was, for example, in the taxi driver case … that will come to charge and at that moment other people can come forward.’
The petition, which needs 100,000 signatures to be debated in the Commons, calls only for anonymity until sexual offence suspects are charged.
It is also being championed by Sir Cliff, who won damages from the BBC after the broadcaster covered the 2014 police raid on the pop star’s Berkshire home.
Sir Cliff was never arrested and did not face charges.
Gambaccini told ITV’s Lorraine: ‘For Cliff and I, our work is not done.
‘We have become magnets for people who are still in the system. We get communications from people going through it now.
‘It has turned out there has been a stall on this law reform.
‘Brexit has taken all of the parliamentary oxygen out of the debate chambers.
‘In my case, all of my relatives around the world were contacted by British media while I was still being interviewed in the police station.’