Sir Cliff Richard 'to Sell £3m Berkshire Home' After Raid Over Child Abuse Claims

Sir Cliff Richard is selling his £3m Berkshire penthouse after it was raided by police amid child abuse claims.

The 73-year-old is said to feel his home has been “violated” after South Yorkshire Police searched his premises without prior warning on 14 August while he was in Portugal.

Richard, who denies the allegation of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old schoolboy at a Christian rally 30 years ago, has since been questioned by police but has not been formerly arrested or charged.

“He is putting the place on the market because he feels it has been violated by the search,” a friend told the Daily Mail.

“He says he feels it’s akin to having your home ransacked by burglars.

“He is a totally innocent man, yet several officers went into his home without any warning, in view of the news cameras, and rifled through his effects.”

At a Home Affairs Select Committee hearing on 2 September, the BBC’s director-general Tony Hall defended the corporation’s right to run the story about the raid, which was leaked by an anonymous source.

“Had the chief constable come to a news editor, the head of news gathering, director of news or myself, and said to us if you run this story you will hamper or damage the investigation, we would not have ran the story.”

Committee chairman Keith Vaz MP accepted Hall’s comments and said the corporation had acted “perfectly properly” in its reporting.

Sir Cliff Richard ‘to Sell £3m Berkshire Home’ After Raid Over Child Abuse Claims

Sir Cliff Richard 'to Sell £3m Berkshire Home' After Raid Over Child Abuse Claims