Back in the 80s, a freelance photographer I knew who did lots of work for the nationals and was the person who broke the David Mellor story told me the biggie that everyone wanted was any dirt on Cliff. He said picture desks had made it clear that you could practically write your own check if you could find dirt on Cliff. With that kind of incentive around for years, it seems inconceivable to me that Cliff could have kept any scandal a secret for so long.

Here we go again, trial by media and worst still, the largely unregulated social media

Armchair experts establishing 'facts' from unverifiable sources and making all sorts of decision based on prejudice and guesswork.

Just coz its on the web does not mean its true. I am happy to leave it to the relevant authorities who work under PACE and other measures aimed at providing fair justice rather than join the e-mob law which is the scourge of the net.

Firstly, may the media long be unregulated except for its need to operate within the law. We have strong libel laws if celebs wish to use them. It's interesting how 'the authorities' are now allowing people to 'white-wash' their pasts so that they don't show up on internet search engines, I bet some celebs rushed to do just that when they heard the news!
Secondly, leaving the work of uncovering child sexual abuse (quote) 'to the relevant authorities' doesn't fill me with confidence. It was only when the media brought up the Savile case that the scale of his abuse started to appear - left to the authorities I reckon it, and many other cases, would have been left on the shelf covered up for eternity. It's interesting how the authorities don't seem to be pursuing Leon Brittan and Greville (Lord) Janner with the same vigour as Cliff Richard, apparently Janner is old and in bad health - as though that puts him above the law!
I say let the media do what the media does best in our 'controlled' society, let it look in dark corners and shine a light on perversion, corruption and scandal, I for one, have no problem with that. We need more openness and transparency not less which is what the establishment wants. Would we have had the MP expenses scandal without the media? NO. Our only hope of finding out what is going wrong in our society is through a free media, we cannot count on the Police, Parliament, the Government or any other branch of the establishment, they simply want the corruption of power to be kept hidden.

The libel laws are there for everyone but it is probably only the rich celebs who can afford to use them.

Because of people not being believed in the past when they had complaints to make, the damage has been done, in a way, because members of the public who may know something will not take the risk of coming forward and not being believed again or on the first time complaint. They could also be afraid of other negative consequences.

It must be quite frustrating for the authorities now if they need help from the public when trying to seek justice.