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10 Dec 17
11:45
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Date Joined:
17 Jun 11
Former celebrity publicist Max Clifford has died in hospital after collapsing in prison, the Ministry of Justice has said.
The 74-year-old was said to be "in a bad way" after collapsing twice at Littlehey Prison in Cambridgeshire, where he was serving an eight-year jail sentence for historic sex offences.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "As with all deaths in custody, there will be an investigation by the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.
"Our condolences are with Mr Clifford's family at this difficult time."
The 74-year-old was said to be "in a bad way" after collapsing twice at Littlehey Prison in Cambridgeshire, where he was serving an eight-year jail sentence for historic sex offences.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "As with all deaths in custody, there will be an investigation by the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.
"Our condolences are with Mr Clifford's family at this difficult time."
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form an orderly queue with yer 'rips' please
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Max is still best known in this country for having his 'tiny' pen!$ measured by a doctor in an attempt to prove his innocence.
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apologies dustybin, but there was no thread as I hit post topic, strangely this thread didn't even appear for 2 minutes when back on the main forum
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I didnt mean that, I meant that neither of us could bring ourselves to say RIP
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Just been reading that he owed a nice few bob having being declared bankrupt.
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Old school
They threw away the key when he was born No characters anymore. |
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Raped in Perpetuity?
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Probably going to start a trend over the next 3/4 weeks of holiday time. Who will be next? #Celebrity toast.
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Is this a case of divine retribution?
 Rot In Perpetuity |
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The same papers and journalists that slagged him off this last few years are the same ones who crawled to him for stories and a nice cosy relationship for the previous 30 years or so.
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You are right Dusty. The sentimentality of the RIP brigade has evaporated for some reason. Perhaps I shouldn't draw conclusions so I won't.
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Spot on Alun .
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You are right Dusty. The sentimentality of the RIP brigade has evaporated for some reason. Perhaps I shouldn't draw conclusions so I won't.
They are all in the pay of the Establishment who stitched Max up after he'd planted stories about leading Tory and Labour politicians, including David Mellor, Neil and Christine Hamilton, and John Prescott. And now he has died shortly before his appeal. Chit-chat today is a sad shadow of its former self if it cannot come up with decent conspiracy theories, even if the victim was a wrong'un. |
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A supporter of the horse charity Main Chance.
RIP Max. |
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Originally published in Surrey Life magazine August 2014
*** In a cosy cabin at the bottom of the paddocks at the Mane Chance Sanctuary in Compton, actress Jenny Seagrove reflects on her recurring associations with this attractive corner of Surrey. “It’s weird, isn’t it? First, there’s the fact that I went to school at St Hilary’s in Godalming. Also, when I’m in London, I walk every day in Kensington Gardens, the location of Surrey artist GF Watts’ Physical Energy, an enormous statue of a horse, and, suddenly, here I am in Compton, working with horses. “So now I’m just down the road from Godalming, I’ve become a patron of St Hilary’s, and Watts’ life-size mould for Physical Energy is just two minutes up the road at the Watts Gallery. It’s almost like I had to come back! “It’s so strange how life pushes you where you’re not expecting to go, but as long as you are prepared to go with it, you can have quite an adventure.” A second chance Running the Mane Chance Sanctuary, which she set up in 2011 to rescue and care for sick, abandoned and abused horses, is possibly her biggest adventure yet. The Kuala Lumpur-born star of stage and screen has always loved animals and, as a self-confessed tomboy child, initially had ambitions to become a vet. “At St Hilary’s, which I attended as a boarder from the age of nine, the headmistress introduced me to poetry. So I blame her for my love of the spoken word and performance, but I’d never thought about acting as a career at that point. I’d studied all the sciences and was set to become a vet until I woke up one morning thinking: ‘I can’t do this; I can’t put animals down.’” Announcing her decision to become an actress instead, she recalls that her mother “turned green” at the thought. She never lost her interest though in nature and animals, and always remained a keen horse rider. However, only an accomplished and well-established performer, confident in the direction of her career, could take on something as demanding as running a charity, and it’s plain that she is putting her heart and soul into the undertaking. In fact, it was the “heart” that led to her involvement in the first place, she admits. “I’ve been a patron of a lot of charities related to old people, special needs children and animals, all of whom really need our help, and I’m also a trustee of the Born Free Foundation,” she continues. “But I’d been supporting this girl in Kent, who’d been looking after animals she found in the most appalling circumstances and was struggling to get enough funds. When she rang and said the horses hadn’t eaten for four days, I realised I would have to set up Mane Chance. I put a lot of my own money into it, and also rang friends like Martin Shaw and other generous friends who helped out financially. But it had to be done because otherwise the animals would have been put down, or split up and sent elsewhere.” Buying the land Finding a new place to keep the animals was another hurdle. “Another great help to the charity was MAX CLIFFORD, God bless him, and through his contacts he got us permission to come here rent-free. When the opportunity came to buy the land, I got a couple of the trustees to come in with me, so now the three of us own the place and we rent it back to the charity for £1.” Set in 47 acres, with only the sound of traffic rumbling along the A3 to disturb the otherwise perfect serenity of the spot, the sanctuary is currently home to 25 horses and ponies. Jenny admits the place “still looks a mess, because we haven’t got enough money to make it look better,” but they employ five paid members of staff, and “horse whisperer” James French has enabled them to make progress with “a lot of very damaged horses.” James’s skills were put to transformative effect on one of her favourites, the giant Ernie. At 18 hands and in his mid-20s – old age in the equine world – Jenny describes him as a gentle giant, but that wasn’t always the case. “When we took him on, he was in a stable 24/7 with the words “I bite” written on it, because nobody could touch him; he’d taken someone’s hand off, put another person in a coma and couldn’t be with other horses. He was a really dangerous animal, but James got onto it and within a few days he was out in the field. He’s now integrated with the herd, and he likes a pat and a scratch.” Multiple benefits But the therapy can work two ways, she maintains, and she is keen to stress that another facet of the sanctuary’s work is with special needs children. “Horses are such empathetic creatures and if you learn how to work with them, you can really help people with all sorts of physical and mental problems. “Another of my favourites here is Grimbo, a Shetland who was going to be exported to Belgium as horse meat. Each week, the local Shooting Star CHASE hospice brings a small coach with half a dozen very poorly children to meet the ponies, and Grimbo seemed to understand how to interact with them from the very first meeting. “He just goes over without needing to be led, and puts his head in their laps. One lad with motor neuron disease can’t even hold a mug of tea, but if we put the Shetlands on either side of him he is able to reach out and stroke them. And I know of an anorexic girl who’s now eating again because of the horses.” On the day that we meet, Jenny is wearing a royal blue cardigan that reminds me of the colours of Everton FC, of whom her partner, the producer Bill Kenwright, is the chairman. Jenny smiles, and admits to being a fan herself. She even used the connection when recording a song – The Main Chance – to raise funds for the charity, with students from the Everton Free School singing the chorus. Written by Geoff Morrow, Jenny is joined by Pete Howarth of The Hollies – “he’s got a voice from God” – and though she was nervous about going into the recording studio at first, she believes the experience has given her more self-confidence about her voice. “And that’s good, because in my last two shows, I’ve had to sing.” Morrow’s lyrics, especially when heard over an accompanying video on the sanctuary website, really touch a nerve. It’s a sweet song, a classic single that, in the days when Top of the Pops was beamed weekly into nearly every living room, might have taken off nationally. As it is, Jenny’s sung it live on Terry Wogan’s show, it’s been played by Steve Wright, and been Record of the Week on BBC Radio Surrey and Sussex. A tour de force How she finds time to fit it all in is remarkable. During a theatre run, she’ll often work all day on charity business, before going off to perform in the evening, and then returning home to do more charity work. Already this year, she’s completed a tour of the provincial theatres, starring in a revival of Noel Coward’s comedy Fallen Angels, opposite her great friend, Sara Crowe, but she’s already busy with her next project – a gripping new show from The Agatha Christie Theatre Company, Murder on Air, in which she will star alongside stage and screen stalwart, Tom Conti. “It’s basically three Agatha Christie radio thrillers, which we are doing on stage, but performed as if it were a live radio broadcast in an imaginary radio studio,” she continues. “It’s going to be great fun.” Reflecting on the theatre scene here in Surrey, with recent performances including the New Victoria Theatre, Woking, the Rose in Kingston and the Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford, Jenny believes that “the Kingston and Guildford audiences are real theatre-goers. They love their plays and the auditoriums and halls are always crammed. In Woking, I think, they tend to go more for musicals, but they are all a joy to work in.” She can’t say much yet about her next big screen project, a British film that she starts work on in the autumn, but I’ll be keeping a look-out for it. The domestic acting profession is a business characterised by a lot of very generous and kind people in my experience, but I’d put Jenny Seagrove among the friendliest and most grounded of the lot. • On Sunday August 31, Jenny Seagrove will host an Open Day at the Mane Chance Sanctuary, Monkshatch Garden Farm, Down Lane, Compton GU3 1DL, featuring tours, stalls, and a chance to learn about the work of ‘horse whisperer’ James French. Find out more by visiting their website at manechancesanctuary.org |
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Buying the land
Finding a new place to keep the animals was another hurdle. “Another great help to the charity was MAX CLIFFORD, God bless him, and through his contacts he got us permission to come here rent-free. When the opportunity came to buy the land, I got a couple of the trustees to come in with me, so now the three of us own the place and we rent it back to the charity for £1.” |
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Buying the land
Finding a new place to keep the animals was another hurdle. “Another great help to the charity was MAX CLIFFORD, God bless him, and through his contacts he got us permission to come here rent-free. When the opportunity came to buy the land, I got a couple of the trustees to come in with me, so now the three of us own the place and we rent it back to the charity for £1.” |
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jUST POINTING OUT HE WASN'T ALL BAD
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Celebrity publicist Max Clifford was jailed for eight years on Friday as a judge ordered him to pay a severe price for sexually abusing four teenage women and trivialising his trial with a "contemptuous attitude" that added to his victims' trauma.
Judge Anthony Leonard imposed a sentence more than double than had been expected, partly because of Clifford's attitude during the trial at Southwark crown court, where he was "laughing and shaking his head" in the dock at some of the accusations made against him. The judge said his conduct had made his victims "extremely upset" and as Clifford listened through a hearing loop from the court dock, Leonard concluded: "I find your behaviour to be quite extraordinary and a further indication that you show no remorse." Clifford was told that had some of offences been tried under today's law, they would be considered as rape or assault by penetration with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. When the judge finished speaking, Clifford removed his hearing loop and turned and smiled at his supporters in the public gallery, most of whom were in tears, before he was led to the court cells and then to Wandsworth prison. His victims, who were in court with friends and family, comforted each other before being led through to the judge's quarters. The length of the sentence stunned many inside the packed courtroom, with sources close to the trial expecting Clifford to be jailed for between two and three years due to the sentencing guidelines at the time of the offences. Guardian Today: the headlines, the analysis, the debate - sent direct to you Read more The sentence, of which Clifford, 71, is expected to serve half in prison, seals the fate of a man who had been instrumental in the downfall of a string of public figures through tabloid stories he had sold. Leonard sentenced Clifford to four and a half years in prison for his abuse of one victim alone – a 15-year-old girl who was left traumatised by a long campaign of sexual abuse. She told the trial she wanted to kill herself after being repeatedly sexually abused by Clifford in 1977. He would take her for long drives in his yellow Jaguar and wooed her parents with promises to make their daughter the UK version of Jodie Foster, while secretly molesting her and forcing her to perform sex acts on him. In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman – who was in court to see Clifford jailed – said he left her relying on counselling and ruined her relationship with her husband and her parents, whom she felt she had deceived by not telling them of the abuse. She said seeing Clifford protest his innocence on television brought back feelings of "intimidation and fear", adding that her trauma was compounded by seeing him refuse to apologise following his conviction. Clifford became the first public figure to be convicted under Scotland Yard's Operation Yewtree inquiry on Monday, when he was found guilty of eight counts of indecent assault against four girls between 1977 and 1985. He was cleared of two other charges of indecent assault and prosecutors let another charge remain on file. His convictions lifted the pressure on the Crown Prosecution Service following the recent acquittals of Tory MP Nigel Evans and Coronation Street actor William Roache. The director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, said she was satisfied with the outcome. "A guilty verdict means victims have been abused and for them it's been a long journey," she said. "I was pleased they were believed, so from that perspective it's a vindication." She added she had written to Clifford's victims asking to meet them and said that, more generally, she felt women in sexual abuse cases had, as witnesses and victims, a raw deal. Judge Leonard told Clifford on Friday: "These offences may have taken place a long time ago when inappropriate and trivial sexual misbehaviour was more likely to be tolerated or overlooked, but your offending is not trivial but of a very serious nature and any perception to the contrary on your part is misconceived." He said the offences did not come to light sooner because of Clifford's dominant character and his position in the entertainment world, which meant his victims "thought you were untouchable, something I judge that you, too, believed and traded upon". The compassion shown by Clifford to his disabled daughter, Louise, who was not in court on Friday, was not shown to the girl he molested on holiday in Spain, the judge said. He added: "Although your charitable work has gone on long after your offending ceased, I cannot ignore that for decades you were leading a double existence." Clifford will go on the sex offenders' register for life, meaning that when he is released he will only be able to live at an approved address and will have to notify authorities of his movements, including travel abroad. But as Clifford was driven by prison van to Wandsworth prison, south-west London, his solicitor, Paul Morris, said they were considering an appeal against his conviction and "seriously considering" an appeal against the eight-year sentence. Outside court, DCI Michael Orchard, the senior investigating officer in the case, thanked Clifford's victims for their bravery in contacting police. He added: "My officers carried out a painstaking investigation to identify all historic and current evidential opportunities, to ensure this case was brought to trial. I hope this gives other victims the courage to come forward, knowing we will make every effort to investigate their allegations regardless of the passage of time. "As a result of high-profile cases such as these we have seen a significant increase in the number of sexual abuse allegations reported to police. "Our specially trained officers will continue to work tirelessly with colleagues at the Crown Prosecution Service to bring sex offenders, whether recent or not, to justice. Over the last 12 months we have seen an increase of 1,436 allegations of sexual abuse reported to the Metropolitan police." |
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Another of my favourites here is Grimbo, a Shetland who was going to be exported to Belgium as horse meat. Each week, the local Shooting Star CHASE hospice brings a small coach with half a dozen very poorly children to meet the ponies, and Grimbo seemed to understand how to interact with them from the very first meeting.
“He just goes over without needing to be led, and puts his head in their laps. One lad with motor neuron disease can’t even hold a mug of tea, but if we put the Shetlands on either side of him he is able to reach out and stroke them. And I know of an anorexic girl who’s now eating again because of the horses.” |
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Kenny......why are trying to put max in a good light...........he was a wrong un
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could just be a rumour
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Cardiff - it is what Kenny does! Rolf Harris was an "innocent abroad", according to him, after just one of his twelve convictions was found to be unsafe.
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He's not the kind of bloke who would've got many 'RIP's' even if his sexual abuse hadn't surfaced.
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s.kenbo.......think its fair to say be was despised by most people........wasn't he cowells PR at one time before the scandal
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think I saw him on one show saying how bad a man Saville was............knowing he wasn't much better
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Max Clifford.....He touched so many people
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lol
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Really Kenny? Then I'm afraid to say you sound like a right mug.
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Seems like more than one of these nonces liked doing their bit for charidee. Clifford a despicable sexual predator.
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This case looks a bit messy. For a start there are allegations that Clifford was denied medical treatment.
On the convictions, an appeal was in the works and due to be heard early next year. I'd imagine the case dies with him. |
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Kenny loves the attention and has previous for this kind of thing, best ignored imo.
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But you can't ignore me, james, can you? lol
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No wonder we have so much animal cruelty. Most people, although they would prefer it didn't happen, remain indifferent.
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remain mainly indifferent.
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Defended Rolf Harris too? Ffs Kenny you're supposed to be an animal lover.
How can you stick up for someone who tied down kangaroos for sport? |
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For once, I agree with Facts.
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He helped a great deal in helping discarded ex racehorses, and pony's have a better life. He helped rescuing them from slaughter, and he brought smiles to dozens of disabled kids. None of this would have been possible without his support. Read Jenny Seagrove's account above. Give me strength.
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