Veteran entertainer Rolf Harris has been found guilty on all 12 counts of indecent assault. Following a six-week trial, the jury at Southwark Crown Court convicted Harris on the 12 counts of indecent assault from 12 initial charges dating from 1968 to 1986.
Six of the indecent assault counts relate to a girl aged 15 between April 1980 and April 1981, and one relates to the same victim at the age of 19 in the year between January 1984 and January 1985.
Three of the indecent assaults relate to a 14-year-old girl in May 1986.
The other two charges relate to the alleged indecent assault on a girl aged seven or eight between January 1968 and January 1970, and a girl aged 14 between January 1975 and January 1976.
According to the Guardian, the prosecution claimed that Harris treated his victims as:”sexual objects to be groped and mauled when he felt like it”. They also referred to him as a “Jekyll and Hyde character.”
Over the course of the trial, the court heard evidence from ten different women, none of whom knew each other except for a mother and daughter who claimed they were groped together. The women claimed similar experiences, despite not knowing each other.
However, the defence on the other hand alleged that Harris’ reputation was now in tatters and that the prosecution “did not reach a standard of criminal proof.”
While in the witness stand, the Guardian reported that Harris regaled the court with tales from his career and even sang a brief chorus from Jake the Peg.
