Max Clifford Boasted Of Sex With Diana Ross, Court Hears

Court Hears How Clifford Boasted Of Sex With Diana Ross

Publicist Max Clifford groped a teenage model who went to him for career advice and told her she could get a part in a James Bond film - but might have to sleep with producer Cubby Broccoli, a court has heard.

She said Clifford locked the door of his office and he kept saying how "turned on" he was as he carried out the attack.

The woman, one of seven alleged victims of indecent assault by Clifford, told London's Southwark Crown Court that she was advised to go to see him in 1983, when she was about 17.

Clifford told her how important he was to the press, he made people's careers, and that he had had sex with Diana Ross, she said.

"For me, Diana Ross was a very beautiful, famous woman, I couldn't imagine why she would sleep with him," she said.

Clifford told her that she needed to get some publicity, and it was very important she was seen with the right person.

She said: "I thought, this is not what I want to be involved in, I couldn't think of anything worse than being in the papers, or being on TV - I wanted to be a fashion model."

He said he wanted to see her figure and told her to take her dress off, which she did reluctantly, partly because she was wearing a thermal vest and holey tights, as she was "poverty stricken" and had only one pair.

"I hadn't gone there thinking 'I'm going to see a photographer', I thought I was going to get career advice."

She took her dress off and Clifford was "overcome", saying how turned on he was - "It was the tights, he was absolutely riveted about the tights."

He groped her chest area and arms - "At this point I'm feeling utterly stupid, totally in shock, I'm just not doing anything."

At that point the telephone rang, and it was his wife. He motioned to the teenager to sit down, and she put the dress back on.

He then started masturbating while on the phone to his wife, and, when the conversation was finished, came round the desk and tried to get the girl to take his penis in her mouth.

"I thought about biting him, but I didn't," she said. And she added: "I felt wet on what would be my breastbone area, the only uncovered part of me. I presume he ejaculated."

Clifford then told her he wanted her to come to dinner with him and his wife and Cubby Broccoli, and masturbate him under the table while he sat next to his wife.

"Then he went on to say I may need to sleep with Cubby Broccoli, but I would get a part in a Bond film.

"I loathe James Bond films."

She could not remember saying anything. "All I wanted to do was get out and go back to my room."

She went back to the hotel where she was staying, and stayed in bed for a number of days, telling staff not to put Clifford's calls through as he rang "relentlessly", she said.

The woman told her sister and some friends what had happened.

"I would get upset when I saw him on television and he complained about his privacy," she said.

The woman, who is now 48, rang police when she saw that Clifford had been arrested.

Clifford, from Hersham in Surrey, is accused of 11 counts of indecent assault against seven women and girls. He denies all the charges.

The woman said in her evidence that she thought Clifford was well-endowed and his penis was very large.

"I had only seen one before, I had never seen one in that proximity and that situation."

The court has heard claims that his penis is "tiny" and no more than two-and-a-half inches when erect.

When Richard Horwell QC, defending, asked her about the issue, the woman remarked: "I have a small mouth. I do, my dentist has always said..."

This prompted laughter on the jury, which was sent out for a few minutes.

Mr Horwell suggested to the woman that her description of the alleged events was invention and fantasy, and she said: "Absolutely not."

Asked by Rosina Cottage QC, prosecuting, if she had lied, she said: "Oh no, it's crystal clear."

Another woman told the court that Clifford put his hand in her bikini bottoms and placed her hand on his penis while he was in a jacuzzi with her when she was just 12.

The incident happened when she was on holiday with her parents in Spain in 1983, she said.

The woman is not a complainant in the case as the alleged offence took place abroad. Offences committed abroad at that time were not triable in British courts. The law has changed since then, but not in time for these allegations to be capable of being tried, the court has heard.

The trial was adjourned until Wednesday.

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