Sir Cliff Richard may sue BBC and police over house raid The Committee said South Yorkshire Police should apologise to the entertainer for the "enormous and irreparable damage" caused to his reputation. The report also criticised the BBC's "misleading"reporting of the police search at Sir Cliff's home in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on August 14. The Corporation broadcast live from outside the building, including aerial pictures from a helicopter, and a reporter suggested their presence at the scene was a "deliberate attempt by police to ensure maximum coverage." Police were investigating an allegation that Sir Cliff, whose singing career spans six decades, sexually assaulted a young boy when performing at a Christian rally organised by Billy Graham, the American evangelist, in 1985. At the time of the BBC's live coverage Sir Cliff, 74, had not been publicly named by police. Sir Cliff has not been arrested or charged and has dismissed the allegations as "completely false." The report also condemned South Yorkshire Police for its failure to contact senior BBC executives. Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the BBC director general, told the committee that if a news editor or other senior figure had been informed of the sensitivity of the investigation "we would not have run the story." Keith Vaz MP, chairman of the committee, had said: "South Yorkshire Police's handling of this situation was utterly inept. The force allowed itself to hand over sensitive information to a journalist and granted him privileged access to the execution of a search warrant. The force should have refused to cooperate and explained to senior BBC News executives why the premature broadcasting of a story, which they claimed the journalist threatened, would have prejudiced the investigation. No British citizen should have to watch their home being raided by the police live on television. After a BBC reporter made an initial approach to South Yorkshire saying he intended to run the story, the force "cut a deal" with him and played an "active part" in assisting the Corporation, the report said. The force's Press office texted the reporter on the morning to notify officers were going to begin the search, and even provided the BBC with an aerial photograph of the block in which Sir Cliff's apartment was located. Information about the search appeared to have been leaked to the BBC by someone inside the Metropolitan Police's Operation Yewtree inquiry into historic sex abuse. But the South Yorkshire force failed to notify Scotland Yard about the leak, the report said, which it described as "unsustainable."