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Sir Cliff Richard: the Billy Graham rally in 1985 now at the centre of child abuse allegation
Sir Cliff Richard has been accused of molesting a boy on the night he appeared as a guest of the US evangelist at a football stadium in Sheffield
By Gordon Rayner, and Edward Malnick
Sir Cliff Richard has plenty of reasons to remember the night of June 28 1985. Not only did he perform in front of a crowd of 47,200 as a guest of the American evangelist Billy Graham, he also met the Bishop of Sheffield to defuse a row over his refusal to boycott apartheid-era South Africa.
Outside the Bramall Lane football ground, where the singer was to appear on stage with Graham, members of Sheffield’s anti-apartheid movement demonstrated against Sir Cliff’s insistence on performing charity gospel concerts in South Africa, which earned him a place on a UN blacklist of performers.
“I go wherever Christians invite me to speak about Jesus. It’s a platform I’ve been given by God,” he told the Sheffield Morning Telegraph, which carried a picture of him dressed in a white suit next to Graham on the next day’s front page.
On Thursday night, Sir Cliff was preparing to relive the events of that evening, this time for the benefit of South Yorkshire Police, after learning that he had been accused of sexually assaulting a boy aged under 16 on that night.
Having stated that he will “cooperate fully” with the police “should they wish to speak to me”, he left no doubt that he is ready and willing to fly to Britain from his home in Portugal to answer questions about what happened on that night 29 years ago.
Philosophers stone – selected views from the boat http://philosophers-stone.co.uk
Source: http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=6623
This *news* is well over a year old!!!! There were 3 allegations in total, one was dropped and two are still under investigation but no arrest or charges have been brought. Cliff has only had to speak to the police twice in that time and he denies any wrong doing at all. How can you put this out as ‘news’??
Cliff has recently finished a sell out UK tour, has had a CD at no. 4 in the UK chart this Autumn and his DVD went straight to no.1 in the DVD music chart last week, no.2 this week. Now *that* is news for someone who has been around in the music business for 57 years, still having hits and sell out venues!!