30-06-2014, 22:24
![[Image: 0107_harris_tab_sp.jpg]](http://www.ninemsn.com.au/img/2014/0107_harris_tab_sp.jpg)
ROLF HARRIS GUILTY
Aussie entertainer guilty of child sex-crimes
An Australian voice yelled out "sinister pervert" as Rolf Harris left a London court after being found guilty of indecently assaulting four girls over almost two decades.
One of his victims was just seven or eight years old at the time.
Harris was crestfallen as he walked slowly from Southwark Crown Court on Monday after a jury unanimously found him guilty of all 12 charges.
The 84-year-old - holding hands with his wife Alwen and daughter Bindi - remained silent as reporters fired questions at him.
An Australian voice yelled out: "What have you got to say for yourself Harris?"
That was followed by: "Sinister pervert."
Those two words were how prosecutor Sasha Wass QC described Harris in her closing address almost three weeks ago. On Monday the jury agreed with her.
Deputy chief crown prosecutor Jenny Hopkins praised the victims' bravery in coming forward to take on the star.
"Rolf Harris used his status and position as a world-famous children's entertainer to sexually assault young girls over a period spanning 18 years," Ms Hopkins told a huge media pack outside the court.
"The victims in this case have suffered in silence for many years and have only recently found the courage to come forward. I would like to pay tribute to the bravery they displayed."
Harris on Monday sat unmoving in the dock as the foreman of the jury read out "guilty" 12 times.
The Australian had been waiting to hear his fate for eight days. The jury deliberated for almost 38 hours in total.
Each of the indecent assault charges carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
Harris is due to be sentenced on Friday.
Justice Nigel Sweeney made it clear he can expect to go to jail.
"Given the conviction on all 12 counts, it's inevitable that the type of sentence uppermost in the court's mind is a custodial sentence," the judge said.
Harris listened impassively throughout with the aid of a hearing loop.
Only after the jurors had left the court did Harris finally stand up. He sipped from a plastic cup and then left the dock.
The one-time royal favourite disappeared into a small room with his legal team before being joined by Alwen and Bindi.
Harris's daughter broke down in tears after the verdicts were delivered and was consoled by the entertainer's long-time agent Jan Kennedy.
Harris in 2013 was charged with 12 counts of indecent assault against four girls in the UK between 1968 and 1986.
The main complainant was a childhood friend of Bindi.
The jury found the performer twice abused the teenager at her own home in southeast London and, subsequently, on another two occasions at his residence in Bray west of the capital.
The victim was under 16 when the incidents occurred between 1979 and early 1981.
Harris also indecently assaulted her in his own swimming pool when she was 19.
The jury rejected the entertainer's claim that he'd had a 10-year consensual affair with his daughter's friend that started after she turned 18.
Harris was also found guilty of assaulting Australian woman Tonya Lee at a London pub in 1986 when she was 15.
Ms Lee had travelled to the UK with a youth theatre group when Harris asked her to sit on his lap after he'd watched one of their shows. He then touched her crotch area.
The star subsequently groped her breast and digitally penetrated Ms Lee outside a bathroom where she'd fled to escape the first assault.
Harris, the jury found, also assaulted a seven or eight-year-old girl in the late 1960s at a community centre near Portsmouth.
She'd gone on stage to get Harris's autograph but was "aggressively and forcefully" groped between her legs, the victim told the court.
Harris was further found guilty of indecently assaulting a teenage waitress at a celebrity event in Cambridge in the mid-1970s.
She'd been drawn out of a marquee by the sounds of dogs and saw Harris crouched down on all fours barking at a terrier.
He subsequently put his arm around the teenager before "firmly" groping her bottom.
Another six women gave supporting evidence during the eight-week trial that Harris abused them in Australia, New Zealand and Malta between 1969 and 1991.
Harris wasn't charged over those alleged incidents because they occurred outside the UK.
Jurors didn't get to hear from a further nine women who claim the entertainer harassed them, including one alleged victim who says she was groped on live TV.
Justice Sweeney on Monday thanked the jurors for their service.
He said they'd conducted themselves in an exemplary fashion with scrupulous attention to their duties.
Harris's legal team have 28 days to lodge an appeal on his behalf.
A spokesman for the Harris family said no one, including the former star's lawyers, agents or friends, would be making "any public comments or be available for interview either here or in Australia".
Harris himself certainly wasn't commenting outside court as he climbed in a chauffeur-driven black Audi alongside Alwen and Bindi.
Reporters continued to ask if he would apologise to his victims until the car sped off from Southwark Crown Court.
He'll return one final time on Friday to be sentenced, and, almost certainly, jailed.
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.
