Max Clifford’s jail term can’t disguise the fact that historic sex cases are not tried fairly.

A judge has sentenced celebrity publicist Max Clifford to eight years in prison for eight proven charges of indecent assault against four women, contrary to the Sexual Offences Act 1956. The jury rejected the evidence of two other complainants, and could not agree on that of a third.

The maximum sentence available by law for such historic offences is two years, so Clifford has obviously been sentenced to consecutive rather than concurrent sentences. It is more usual to impose concurrent sentences, so it appears that the court was seeking to give the public a message about being tough on this sort of crime.

Clifford’s stance throughout the trial clearly did him no favours. He was antagonistic, boastful and obnoxious, calling his accusers liars and fantasists. This high-risk tactic predictably backfired. Clifford has made a lot of enemies during his career as a ‘kiss and tell’ story broker, and the jury obviously found him deeply unattractive. The rejoicing at his downfall was universal.

Continued: www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/cl...e-to-do-with-justice