Max Clifford arrives at Westminster Magistrates Court, to face charges of indecent assault (Reuters)
Max Clifford arrives at Westminster Magistrates Court, to face charges of indecent assault (Reuters)

Publicist Max Clifford has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of indecent assault on girls aged between 14 and 19.

Clifford, 70, appeared at Westminster magistrates' court accused of committing the offences against seven teenage girls between 1966 and 1985.

The PR guru was released on bail and will appear at Southwark crown court on 12 June.

Clifford was told he must not come into any unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18 as part of his bail conditions.

The suspect previously described the accusations against him as "completely false" and "a load of nonsense".

He was arrested as part of Operation Yewtree, the investigation set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex scandal. Clifford was arrested under the strand 'others' meaning his offences are not directly related to the late Top of the Pops presenter.

The other two strands of the operation pertain to crimes directly involving Savile, and another relating to Savile and others.

After the 70-year-old was formally charged in April, he said his life had become a "24/7 nightmare" for him and his family.

He continued: "The allegations in respect of which I have been charged are completely and utterly false and I have made this very clear to the police during many hours of interviews I have given them since December.

"I have never indecently assaulted anyone in my life and this will become abundantly clear I'm sure during the course of the proceedings.

"Since last December, I have been living a 24/7 nightmare. A black cloud has been placed above me, virtually obliterating the bright blue skies that I have been fortunate enough to live my life under for the vast majority of the past seventy years."