Australian entertainer Rolf Harris, a TV family favorite in his homeland and Britain for more than 50 years, is a “Jekyll and Hyde” figure who groped women and used his fame to abuse girls, a UK court heard on Friday.
Harris, 84, is the biggest name to go on trial since British police launched a major investigation after revelations that the late British Broadcasting Corp (BBC) TV host Jimmy Savile was a prolific child sex abuser, leading to the arrest of more than a dozen aging celebrities.
Known to millions in Britain and Australia for pop chart hits such as Two Little Boys and Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, Harris is also a keen artist who painted Queen Elizabeth II’s portrait in 2005 and was honored by her for his services to entertainment and charity.
Photo: AFP
The white-bearded, bespectacled entertainer sat silently in the dock as he was accused of 12 counts of indecent assault against four girls between 1968 and 1986, the youngest of whom was aged just seven or eight at the time of the alleged offense.
Harris denies the charges.
He was accompanied by his daughter, Bindi, and wife, Alwen Hughes, when he arrived at Southwark Crown Court on the opening day of what is expected to be a six-week trial.
The jury of six men and six women heard prosecutor Sasha Wass describe Harris as a Jekyll and Hyde figure whose “dark side” was not known to colleagues and companions for decades.
She said Harris had groomed one girl “like a pet,” slobbered around the neck of another and ran his hands down a third victim inappropriately in separate incidents, with two girls later becoming alcoholics as a result of the abuse.
Wass said Harris used his fame to touch girls with impunity and consistently acted in the same way: “a lunge and getting straight in there.”
The British jury was also told that Harris had a reputation at an Australian TV channel for inappropriate behavior.
“He was known as ‘the octopus’ because of the way he would put his hands all over women,” Wass said.
“He took advantage of his fame and popularity,” she added.
Harris allegedly developed a consistent approach in gaining the trust of his young victims before abusing them, the jury heard.
“You will see a pattern, during the case, of Mr Harris approaching girls in a purely friendly way and then once he is in close physical contact with them, taking advantage of the situation in order to indecently assault them,” Wass said.
The court heard that Harris wrote a letter of confession to the father of one of his victims in which he accepted that he had had a sexual relationship with the woman, but did not say it had occurred while she was under-age.
“I fondly imagined that everything that had taken place had progressed from a feeling of love and friendship,” the jury heard that Harris wrote in the letter.
“There was no rape, no physical forcing, brutality or beating that took place,” he added.
Harris abused the girl from the age of 13, in numerous locations in Britain and elsewhere, the court in the UK was told.
His status meant she did not talk about the incident until 1996, but in 1994, the court heard, Harris says he was contacted by the woman who demanded ￡25,000 (US$42,100).
When he refused, she threatened that her brother would go to newspapers over what Harris assumed were details of the affair.
The first prosecution witness is due to take the stand tomorrow.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS