Judge says corporation must reveal whether information about sex assault inquiry came from within Operation Yewtree

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Sir Cliff Richard has won the latest skirmish in a high court battle with the BBC.

A judge has told the BBC to give the singer more information about how a journalist learned that he was being investigated as a result of a sex assault allegation.

Mr Justice Mann has ruled that BBC managers must tell Richard whether the source of information was someone working on a wider Metropolitan police inquiry into sex abuse allegations, an investigation codenamed Operation Yewtree.

Lawyers representing Richard, 76, wanted more detail about the source. The BBC said it should not be forced to reveal more information.

Mann had analysed the arguments at a preliminary high court hearing in May and has announced his decision in a written ruling. He has said the BBC must provide a “proper answer” to the question Richard had asked about whether the source came from “within Operation Yewtree”.

Richard has sued the BBC over coverage of a raid at his home in Sunningdale, Berkshire, in August 2014. Lawyers representing the singer say he has suffered “profound and long-lasting” damage. BBC editors have said they will “defend ourselves vigorously”.

A spokesman said the BBC had reported Richard’s “full denial of the allegations at every stage”.

Lawyers have told how in late 2013 a man had made an allegation to the Metropolitan police, saying he had been sexually assaulted by Richard at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane football stadium, in Sheffield, when a child in 1985. Metropolitan police officers had passed the allegation to South Yorkshire police in July 2014. Richard had denied the allegation and in June 2016, prosecutors announced he would face no charges.

Mann has overseen a number of preliminary hearings. Any trial is expected to take place next year.

Richard had also sued South Yorkshire police. The judge was last week told that that dispute had been settled after the force agreed to pay the singer “substantial” damages.