Max Clifford guilty of string of assaults on teenage girls

The 71-year-old was cleared of two counts and the jury at Southwark Crown Court was unable to reach a verdict on one other.

Clifford becomes the first person to be convicted under the high profile Operation Yewtree sex crime investigation.

He repeatedly denied the historic claims, calling his arrest and prosecution “a nightmare” and branding his accusers “fantasists and opportunists”.

Predator

But the court heard how Clifford boasted of his connections in Hollywood to get sexual favours from young women.

Prosecutors portrayed him as a predator who abused his victims after promising to boost their careers and introduce them to celebrities.

He pretended to talk to Steven Spielberg and James Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli on the phone, and even bizarrely bragged about having a tiny penis, asking one victim: “Is it the smallest you’ve ever seen?”

The size of Clifford’s manhood became a matter of contention during the trial, and his defence team asked a doctor to measure his penis as part of the evidence.

Victims included a dancer who received a hoax call while she was at a nightclub from someone pretending to represent Broccoli, and was told to find out whether Clifford was circumcised.

She said she “froze” and realised she was “stuck”, fearing she would be raped when Clifford took her into the toilet and assaulted her.

Part in Bond film

A teenage model said Clifford groped her when she went to his office for career advice in 1983, bragging that he could get her a part in a Bond film.

The court also heard from a woman who claimed Clifford had impressed her parents with celebrity tales and went on to abuse her from the age of 15.

She said she left feeling suicidal when he falsely told her he had a photograph of her performing a sex act on him, and in 2011 sent him a letter claiming he had made her life “a living hell”.

Clifford was arrested in December 2012 and charged in April the following year.

Yewtree, Scotland Yard’s inquiry into historic allegations of sexual offences, was launched after claims were made against the late DJ Jimmy Savile.

Clifford was released on bail until his sentencing, but Judge Anthony Leonard QC warned him: “You must realise that the fact I have given you bail is no indication of what the final sentence will be.”