Clifford admits to affairs and ‘slap and tickle’

The 70-year-old, who denies 11 counts of indecent assault on seven alleged victims, laid bare details of his love life as he gave evidence in his defence at Southwark Crown Court yesterday.

Sitting in the witness box, the PR guru told the jury he had sex in his New Bond Street office but only with a woman he was having an affair with.

Earlier the court heard that he had told police there had been “slap and tickle, kissing and cuddling” at his HQ.

Clifford, from Hersham in Surrey, said he had a relationship with an employee and because so many other people in his industry were also having affairs it seemed “natural”.

He told the court: “As and when and if something happened in the office it would have been very, very occasional, spontaneous, after work with the doors locked. We went to hotels and motels, we went abroad...it was a relationship.

“Did I ever have sex in my office? Yes, but with someone I was having an affair with.”

He said he knew the relationship was “morally wrong” but he did not think he would be found out.

“I knew what I was doing was morally wrong. I didn’t ever think I would be found out. Right from the start my work was helping everyone else from people finding out about their private lives. Just about everybody I knew in the business was having affairs so it seemed pretty natural.

“In hindsight, of course, looking back it was the wrong thing to do. If I hadn’t been married I would have married her.”

Clifford said he had affairs with four women, including a French model and a television dancer.

He told the court that if a woman had offered sex to him in the 1970s and 1980s she had “probably offered the same to everybody else”.

The trial was adjourned and is due to resume today.