Max Clifford remorseless as he begins eight-year prison sentence

After years making headlines for his celebrity clients, Max Clifford was front page news today as he was jailed for eight years over a string of indecent assaults on young women.

Yet the publicist appeared remorseless on his final day of freedom - leaving his multi-million pound mansion with no apology for the victims of his crimes - the youngest of whom was 15 at the time of the attack.

Asked how he was coping before he left for court, he said: "It's not the best day of my life, is it?"

However, the 71-year-old's fall from grace was cemented today. After decades influencing the media, he was convicted of eight counts of the crime, carried out between 1977 and 1984.

During sentencing, the judge commented upon Mr Clifford's "contemptuous attitude" to the court proceedings, citing as an example his bizarre behaviour in mimicking a Sky News reporter earlier in the trial.

This was not to detract from the seriousness of the crimes Mr Clifford committed, however. The judge made clear that the convictions were of a "very serious nature and any perception to the contrary on your part is misconceived".

He added that, as Mr Clifford was being charged under laws at the time of the abuse in the 1970s and 1980s, he faced a maximum sentence of two years for each.

Several of Mr Clifford's victims - in court to hear his fate - congratulated one another as the lengthy sentence was handed down.

He had called them "liars" and "fantasists" as they made their claims to the jury.

The judge argued that the crimes had gone unreported so long as "your victims thought you were untouchable, something I judge that you, too, believed and traded upon".

Mr Clifford's wife and daughter - who had been present throughout his trial - were absent for the publicist's final visit to court.

And as he was taken to begin his sentence at Wandsworth Prison, many will have noted the irony of the paparazzi busily trailing his prison van.

Read: Max Clifford jailed for eight years for indecent assaults