Rolf Harris has been jailed for carrying out a series of indecent assaults on young women and girls, including an eight-year- old autograph hunter and the 13-year-old friend of his daughter.
Mr Justice Sweeney sentenced the entertainer to a total of five years and nine months in prison on 12 counts of indecent assault. Harris will serve half the total jail sentence with some of the individual sentences to be served consecutively and others concurrently.
As Harris (84) stood to hear the sentences, there was no reaction from him or members of his family, including his daughter, Bindi Nicholls. His wife, Alwen, did not attend.
Harris, wearing a grey suit, white shirt and colourful striped tie, was then led away through the side of the dock with an officer carrying his bag.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court on Monday unanimously found Harris guilty of the 12 charges of indecent assault, including seven against the childhood friend of his daughter, beginning when the girl was 13 and on holiday. The court heard that Harris continued a sexual liaison with the woman, 35 years his junior, until her late 20s.
“No remorse
”
Before a packed courtroom on Friday, Mr Justice Sweeney said to Harris: “You showed no remorse. You took advantage of the trust placed in you through celebrity status. You clearly got a thrill from committing offences while others were nearby. You have shown no remorse at all.
“Your reputation lies in ruins [and] you have nobody to blame but yourself.”
Before sentencing, Harris listened impassively as victim impact statements were read out to the court. The former friend of Ms Nicholls said the abuse he inflicted had made her drink, wrecked her career and given her panic attacks.
“The attacks that happened have made me feel dirty, grubby and disgusting. The whole sordid saga has traumatised me,” the statement said.
“As a young girl I had aspirations to have a career, settle down and have a family. However, as a direct result of his actions, this has never materialised.
“The knowledge of what he had done to me haunted me. However, his popularity with the British public made it harder for me to deal with.”
The woman said she had been convinced nobody would believe her. “My loved ones couldn’t understand why I drank so much until I told them what Rolf had done to me for so long.”
Another victim, who was assaulted by Harris when she visited England as a teenager, said the incident was a turning point in her life from which she had never recovered.
“I have never felt safe since, I live in a constant state of anxiety,” she said. “What Mr Harris took from me was my very essence. I believe that it was for Mr Harris a forgettable moment but it was something for me I will never move on from. I know the person I am today is not the person I should have been.”
A third victim, who was indecently assaulted by Harris as she sought his autograph at a community centre when she was seven or eight, said the incident had taken away her childhood. “I became an angry child, unable to express myself and unable to trust men,” she said.
Mr Justice Sweeney said he had no doubt Harris “fancied” the friend of his daughter, and it was his crimes that made the victim as she was. Harris had caused her “severe psychological harm”.
Sonia Woodley QC, defending, said in mitigation that apart from the assaults against his daughter’s friend, Harris’s crimes were brief and “opportunistic, not predatory”. For the last 20 years he had led an “upright life” and he had been patron of 16 charities, she said.
Since his arrest in 2012, Harris had been “a prisoner in his own home” due to the media frenzy, Ms Woodley said. He was now 84 and “living on borrowed time” and the prison term should reflect this.
As well as the four victims whose evidence formed the charges, the trial heard evidence from six more alleged victims as “bad character” witnesses. Seven more alleged victims did not give their evidence for legal reasons.
Other women
During and since the court case, several other women have come forward to make allegations against Harris, with the police and the NSPCC charity saying they have received a number of calls.
Sasha Wass QC, prosecuting, told the court yesterday that Harris had also been charged with four counts of viewing indecent images, which were to have been tried separately, but the Crown Prosecution Service would not pursue those charges in light of Monday’s guilty verdicts.
Harris will pay prosecution costs on schedule, to be worked out later.
Harris was one of the best- loved and enduring entertainers of his era, with a TV career dating back 60 years and a reputation for his good rapport with children.
He now faces the possibility of losing much of his £11 million fortune after some victims contacted a law firm specialising in civil compensation claims over sexual abuse.
Since the verdict, Bassendean, Harris's home town in Western Australia, has begun to shed its association with the entertainer, stripping him of honours and making plans to remove a plaque outside his childhood home. – (Guardian service)