Entertainer jailed for sex assaults

Veteran entertainer Rolf Harris, centre, arrives at Southwark Crown Court in central London. Picture: NIKLAS HALLE'N

Veteran entertainer Rolf Harris, centre, arrives at Southwark Crown Court in central London. Picture: NIKLAS HALLE'N

Published Jul 4, 2014

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London - Veteran Australian entertainer Rolf Harris, a mainstay of family entertainment in Britain and Australia, was jailed for five years and nine months on Friday for assaulting young girls over two decades.

On Monday, Harris, 84, was found guilty of 12 counts of assaulting four girls, some as young as seven or eight, between 1968 and 1986.

“It is clear from the evidence that what you did has had a significant adverse effect on each victim,” the judge Nigel Sweeney told Harris at London's Southwark Crown Court.

“You have shown no remorse for your crimes at all.”

An artist and musician who presented prime-time TV shows mostly aimed at children, Harris was the biggest name to go on trial since British police launched a major investigation following the revelations that the late BBC TV host Jimmy Savile was a prolific child sex abuser.

The country's most well known publicist Max Clifford was also found guilty in May of indecently assaulting teenage girls about 30 years ago, as part of the police's overarching investigation into a dozen ageing British celebrities.

Harris had earlier on Friday sat motionless as a prosecution lawyer read to the court the statements from four victims, including one who waived her right to anonymity, Tonya Lee, who said she had “never felt safe” since. - Reuters

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