Max Clifford, the celebrity publicist who made his name and fortune helping some of Britain's most famous people shape their reputations, has been charged with 11 indecent assaults of girls and young women, including a 14-year-old.
The charges related to offences allegedly committed between 1966 and 1985 and were laid in the course of Operation Yewtree, the police investigation which was set up following the revelation of the sexual offences carried out by Jimmy Savile.
The Crown Prosecution Service on Friday announced it had authorised police to charge Clifford, who was arrested at his Surrey home in December on suspicion of sexual offences. Clifford said the charges were "completely false" and vowed to clear his name in court.
Alison Saunders, chief crown prosecutor for CPS London, said: "We have carefully considered the evidence gathered as part of Operation Yewtree in relation to Max Clifford, who was initially arrested on 6 December 2012 over allegations of sexual offences.
"Having completed our review, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Clifford to be charged with 11 offences of indecent assault relating to seven complainants.
"We have also decided there is insufficient evidence to authorise charges in relation to three separate allegations. These decisions were taken in accordance with the code for crown prosecutors and our guidance for prosecutors on sexual offences."
Clifford will appear at Westminster magistrates court on 28 May. He faces up to 10 yearsin prison if convicted.
"Anyone who really knew me all those years ago, and those who have known me since will, I'm sure, have absolutely no doubt that I would never act in the way that I have today been accused," Clifford told Reuters in December.
As part of Operation Yewtree, police have been looking into categories of alleged offences: those involving only Savile, those involving Savile and others, and those which had no direct link to Savile. Clifford's arrest was understood to have been part of the third strand.
The charges include an indecent assault against a 14-year-old girl in 1966, and indecent assault against an 18-year-old woman in 1974/75. Clifford also faces three charges of indecent assault on a 15-year-old girl in 1977/78 and indecent assault against a 19-year-old woman in 1978.
He is also charged with two indecent assaults against a girl, aged 16 or 17, in 1981/82, indecent assault against a 19-year-old woman in 1980/81, and two indecent assaults against an 18-year-old woman in 1984/85.
Clifford, who has become a household name for selling "kiss and tell" stories relating to the rich and famous, has wielded major influence on Fleet Street for decades.
After training as a journalist, he moved into what was then the emerging sector of press relations, starting out at EMI, where he was involved in early publicity for the Beatles.
His company, Max Clifford Associates, was established while he was in his 20s and has represented figures ranging from Frank Sinatra to Muhammad Ali and, in recent times, Jade Goody and Simon Cowell.
In the course of acting for another client in the 1980s, Clifford is credited with inventing the story that led to the cult Sun headline "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster".Later outside his home in Surrey, an emotional Clifford told reporters: "The allegations in respect of which I have been charged are completely false, very upsetting, very distressing, but completely false.
"I have made it clear to the police during probably around 25 hours of interviews since last December when I was initially arrested, that there's absolutely no truth and substance in any of these allegations."
He added: "I'm so grateful to the many people that I meet everywhere I go who have been so supportive to me and since this charge being announced in the last couple of hours I've literally had hundreds of calls to my office, to friends, to myself, to my wife, to family members, and everyone of them has been nothing but supportive.
"Twenty-eight years ago was this most recent (allegation), and 47 years ago was the oldest.
"That's what I'm up against and that's what I've now got to – with my legal team – face up to and sort out to clear my name."