Disgraced UK celebrity publicist Max Clifford dies aged 74 during sex crimes sentence

Disgraced celebrity publicist Max Clifford, a confidant to the stars who fell from grace amid Britain’s investigation of past sexual abuse, died Sunday after collapsing in prison. He was 74.

Once one of the most powerful figures in British entertainment, Clifford was convicted in 2014 of eight counts of indecent assault stemming from attacks on teenagers dating back more than 40 years.

He was serving an eight-year prison sentence at Littlehey Prison in Cambridgeshire when he died, Britain’s Ministry of Justice said.

Clifford was once as well known as the people he represented – the go-to guy for celebrities looking to limit the damage from drug problems, legal issues or declining popularity.

His clients included TV mogul Simon Cowell and former Harrods owner Mohammed al-Fayed, as well as dozens of ordinary people who found themselves in the news vortex and sought to sell their stories to the press – a common practice in Britain.

The public relations guru was arrested in December 2012 amid allegations that he lured girls as young as 14 into sex by offering them acting roles. Clifford immediately swung into damage-control mode, vowing to clear his name of the charges, some of which stemmed from the 1970s and ‘80s.

“The allegations in respect of which I have been charged are completely false – very upsetting, very distressing, but completely false,” he told reporters outside his home at the time. “I have never indecently assaulted anyone in my life, and this will become clear during the course of the proceedings.”