Rolf Harris Guilty on all 12 Counts of Indecent Assault
AP, 30 June 2014
The 84-year-old was accused of indecently assaulting four women between 1968 and 1986
The veteran entertainer, Australian Rolf Harris has been found guilty on all 12 charges of indecent assault at Southwark Crown Court, UK.
The 84-year-old has been convicted of attacks on four victims between 1968 and 1986, after the jury of six men and six women deliberated the case for more than 33 hours and into an eighth day.
During his trial, which opened on 9 May, prosecutors claimed that the entertainer was a “Jekyll and Hyde” character who had a dark side to his personality and used his fame to abuse under-age girls with impunity.
His conviction is the most high-profile of those achieved by officers from Scotland Yard as part of the sex crime investigation Operation Yewtree, set up in the wake of the
Jimmy Savile/BBC Pedo scandal.
Once regarded by a UK audience as a national treasure, Australian Harris had enjoyed years of success, bringing him a multi-million pound fortune and the opportunity to paint the Queen.
Rolf Harris arrives with his wife Alwen Hughes (R) and daughter Bindi (L) at the Southwark Crown Court in central London today
He remained impassive as the forewoman delivered the jury’s unanimous verdicts, while his daughter Bindi, wife Alwen and niece Jenny watched on from the public gallery.
Harris has now been released on bail until Friday, when he will be sentenced.
He was warned by Justice Sweeney that, given his conviction on all 12 counts, it was “inevitable” that there was the possibility he will face a jail term.
Seven of those 12 counts related to a single woman, who said Harris abused her from the age of 13 over the course of several years, starting while she was on holiday in Hawaii.
Another victim claimed Harris groped her when she was
seven or eight after she went to get his autograph at a community centre near Portsmouth between 1968 and 1970.
She told the jury he aggressively assaulted her “out of nowhere” at the packed venue.
A third victim said Harris touched her bottom when she was waitressing at a celebrity event in Cambridge, either in 1975 or 1978.
She said she saw Harris “playing up to the crowd”, crouched on all fours barking at a dog, before he groped her.
The fourth victim, Tonya Lee, who has waived her right to anonymity, said she was abused while on a tour of the UK with an Australian youth theatre group in 1986.
The aspiring theatre star, then 15, said she “felt disgusting” after Harris groped her when he went for dinner with the group at a London pub.
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