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British musician Cliff Richard Image Credit: AFP

Singer Rod Stewart has offered to pay half of singer Cliff Richard’s legal bills that were incurred over child sex abuse charges.

Richard was subject to a 22-month-long investigation after four men accused him of abusing them between 1958 and 1983. All allegations against the singer were eventually dropped without him having ever been arrested or charged.

Speaking at the Pinktober Gala presented by Hard Rock Heals at the Dorchester Hotel, Stewart said: “Cliff you were persecuted mate and we all know it. We are one million per cent behind you. If you sue those [expletive] I’ll give you half.”

This comes after it was announced that Richard had begun proceedings to sue both the BBC and the South Yorkshire police for naming him as the suspect in the child abuse case, and for publicly broadcasting the raid of his Berkshire mansion in 2014.