British Christian pop singer, Sir Cliff Richard, has been cleared of historic sex assault claims after prosecutors drop case

British Christian pop singer, Sir Cliff Richard, has been cleared of historic sex assault claims after prosecutors drop case

Well-known Anglican evangelist enters the arena and criticizes the ‘very troubling state of British justice’

SOUTH YORKSHIRE, UK (ANS – June 20, 2016) -- British Christian pop singer, Sir Cliff Richard, has been cleared of sex assault allegations after the Crown Prosecution Service announced it would bring no charges following a two-year police inquiry.

According to the UK-based Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk), the 75-year-old singer will face no further action following the controversial South Yorkshire Police investigation into allegations of historical sexual abuse.

Prosecutors announced on Thursday (June 16) morning that there was “insufficient evidence to prosecute” the veteran entertainer after the police investigation that cost an estimated £800,000 [about $1.5 million USD).

Sir Cliff, who has raised millions of pounds for the British evangelical charity, Tearfund (the Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund), and has appeared in films for Billy Graham and sung and shared his testimony at rallies with the American evangelist, said that he is “obviously thrilled that the vile accusations” have been brought to a close” as he used his statement to say he had been “hung out like live bait” and called for those who are facing allegations to “never be named publicly until charged.”

South Yorkshire Police has now apologized “wholeheartedly for the additional anxiety caused” to Sir Cliff by the force's “initial handling of the media interest” in its investigation into the singer, when the BBC was tipped off about a raid on his home and broadcast it live.

“Sir Cliff’s Berkshire home was raided by South Yorkshire Police in August 2014 after they received a tip from Operation Yewtree, detailing an allegation that dated back more than quarter of a century” said the Telegraph.

“Officers travelled from South Yorkshire in a convoy of unmarked vehicles and entered the private estate shortly after 1pm. But within minutes of their arrival news of the raid was being broadcast on the BBC which had stationed a producer outside the Sunningdale property the previous evening.

“The broadcaster even used a news helicopter overhead to film detectives as they removed items from the star’s apartment.

“It was later revealed that the force had cut a deal with the BBC in order to allow the filming of the raid.”

An independent investigation subsequently criticized the arrangement for interfering with Sir Cliff’s privacy and causing unnecessary distress.

The Home Affairs Select Committee in London later described the police raid as “utterly inept.”

Now, well-known Anglican evangelist, Revd. Canon J.John (http://www.canonjjohn.com), a Greek-Cypriot by birth who lives in England and is also Director of the UK-based Philo Trust, a registered charity, committed to communicating the relevance of the Christian faith, has entered the fray and spoken out on behalf of Sir Cliff.

In a statement sent to the ASISST News Service, he said, “I was delighted to hear the news from the Crown Prosecution Service that Sir Cliff Richard ‘will face no further action over allegations of historical sex abuse.’ I am pleased that these enquiries have finally been closed because I have had a number of meetings with Sir Cliff over the years and have always found him to be a good, gracious and honorable man.

“Yet the announcement must not go without comment. As Sir Cliff’s statement points out, there are a number of disquieting aspects to the way in which the enquiry has been handled.

“First of all, whether by carelessness or design, the enquiry was carried out in a way that ensured the maximum possible publicity. For instance, how and why was the BBC tipped off (surely illegally) that there would be a raid on his home?

“At a time when a number of music and media celebrities of the last few decades are being outed as pedophiles or predatory sex offenders, the highly publicized investigation seems almost to have been calculated to make some mud stick.

“Second, the sheer duration of the enquiry – almost two years – has produced the maximum possible psychological pressure. In English law there is the long-established and honorable principle of someone being ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ Here, however, we have a man who has, in effect, been sentenced to public sneers and insinuations, not simply before being found guilty but before he was even charged or tried.

“Finally, all that Sir Cliff has been offered is the flat statement that the police ‘have closed their enquiries.’ This is a long way from a declaration of innocence: in many minds the shadow of suspicion will linger.”

J.John went on to say, “Looking at the whole sorry and vastly expensive affair, I find myself wondering with some unease if there are now people in the Crown Prosecution Service who are specifically seeking high-profile targets with a view to dragging them down. And, in a similar frame of mind, I find myself further asking whether, in an age in which it is fashionable to be openly opposed to religion and specifically to Christianity, Sir Cliff was targeted precisely because of his openly stated faith.

“One definition of the term witch-hunt is ‘a campaign directed against a person or group holding views considered unorthodox or a threat to society,’ There is a very thin line between seeking to prosecute and seeking to persecute. Some of us will suspect that in this case that line may have been crossed.

“It is not enough that this wretched investigation be allowed to slip into history. Someone needs to be asked some very hard questions about how this was so badly mismanaged.

“The point of any justice system is to catch the guilty and spare the innocent. This has done the very opposite.”

He concluded by saying, “I esteem Sir Cliff Richard for his character, integrity and grace which exudes from him and l pray he may continue to be an inspiration to many in the years ahead.”

About Cliff Richard:

Sir Cliff Richard, OBE, was born as Harry Rodger Webb in a hospital in Lucknow, India, on October 14, 1940, which was then part of British India (or the British Raj). His parents were Rodger Oscar Webb, a manager for a catering contractor that serviced the Indian Railways, and the former Dorothy Marie Dazely. In 1948, following Indian independence, the family embarked on a three-week sea voyage to Tilbury, Essex, England aboard the SS Ranchi. The Webb’s moved from comparative wealth in India, where they had servants and lived in a company-supplied flat at Howrah near Calcutta, to a semi-detached house in Carshalton, a suburb of London.

Harry Webb became lead singer of a British rock and roll group, the Drifters (not to be confused with the US group of the same name), which later became the Shadows. The 1950s entrepreneur Harry Greatorex wanted the up-and-coming Rock ‘n’ Roll singer to change from his real name of Harry Webb. The name Cliff was adopted as it sounded like “cliff face,” which suggested “Rock.” It was “Move It” writer Ian Samwell who suggested that the former Harry Webb be surnamed “Richard” as a tribute to Webb's musical hero Little Richard.

Today, Sir Cliff Richard has a career as a pop singer, musician, performer, actor and philanthropist, that has spanned more than 50 years. He has sold worldwide more than 250 million records, and has total sales of over 21 million singles in the UK and is the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart history, behind the Beatles and Elvis Presley.

After he publically declared his Christian faith in the mid-sixties at a Billy Graham rally at Earls Court, London, and later appeared in some of Graham films such “Two A Penny,” there was increased focus on his Christian faith and subsequent softening of his music that later led to a more middle of the road pop image. He sometimes ventured into contemporary Christian music and one of his big Christian hits was “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music,” written by the late Larry Norman, which whom he performed on television.

I have known Sir Cliff now for more than 40 years and have interviewed him many times. We even went to the same church – Walton Baptist Church in Surrey – for a time. On one occasion, after he had visit Bangladesh with Tearfund, I talked with him for a front-page story in the Sunday People, and he was so moved with the poverty he had seen, he told me that he was planning to give up his music career to become a missionary. However, his friends eventually talked him out of it saying that he could do more good by raising funds to help missionaries and Tearfund, than quite, and so he stayed in the music business.

Cliff was a co-founder of the Arts Centre Group (ACG) in London (with broadcaster, David Winter and actor, Nigel Goodwin), which was set up to encourage people working professionally in the arts, entertainment and media fields. I became a founder/member of the group, and ran the ACG Journalist’s Group for several years before I moved to the United States with my family in 1982. The last time I saw Cliff was in 1993 in Essen, Germany, before he was to sing and speak at a Billy Graham outreach there, (I was part of Mr. Graham’s media team). We had coffee together, and I shared with him about the start of my new ministry, ASSIST, and he showed great interest in what we were doing.

So, in conclusion, I would like to say that, like millions around the world, I am so pleased that his nightmare is finally over for Sir Cliff. And in future, maybe the South Yorkshire Police will be a little more careful before dragging any other personalities through the mud like they did in this shocking case.

Photo captions: 1) Sir Cliff, pictured performing on stage during his 75th birthday tour, said there was a “widely-shared sense of injustice resulting from the high-profile fumbling of my case.” 2) Cliff Richard performs with Larry Norman on stage. 3) J.John. 4) Sir Cliff Richard and Billy Graham at an evangelical rally in Birmingham in 1984, 5) Dan Wooding pictured with Billy and Ruth Graham at their home in Montreat, North Carolina.

About the writer: Dan Wooding, 75, is an award-winning winning author, broadcaster and journalist born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, Alfred and Anne Wooding. He is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for nearly 53 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren, who all live in the UK. Dan is the founder and international director of the ASSIST News Service (ANS), and the author or co-author of some 45 books, the latest of which is a novel called Mary: My Story from Bethlehem to Calvary (http://marythebook.com). Dan has a weekly radio show and two TV programs all based in Southern California. Before moving to the US, Dan was a senior reporter with two of the UK’s largest circulation newspapers and was also an interviewer for BBC Radio One in London.

** You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net).