Rolf Harris sexual assault trial: what we have heard so far

 
       

  
  
   
       Credits:    BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images     Alt Text:    Rolf Harris and his wife Alwen Hughes at Southwark Crown Court      

  
 
      
    Bindi, daughter of Rolf Harris, smashed two of his paintings after hearing allegations of abuse     
 
        Summary  
    
    Friday, May 30, 2014 - 2:51pm  
         
 Rolf Harris has spent the last three weeks in court facing 12 charges of indecent assault spanning three decades. The 84-year-old entertainer has sung for the jury, shown them how to blow into a didgeridoo and even demonstrated the sound of his famous "wobble board". But the prosecution has reminded him it is "not a talent show" and persuaded him to admit that he has a darker side that allowed him to conceal affairs from his wife. Prosecuting lawyer Sasha Wass has said jurors will need to fathom "how dark that dark side actually is". Here is what they have heard so far: 
  Thursday 29 May: Bindi Harris 'beside herself' over claims 
 The court hears how Harris's daughter Bindi smashed two of his paintings and banged her head against a wall in anger when she first heard the claims that he had sexually abused one of her friends. Bindi had been "beside herself with shock" after her friend made the allegations and confronted him in a phone call, the court heard. 
 Giving evidence for the defence, a friend of Bindi's told the court the Harris family were "warm with each other – very loving, very cuddly, very giggly". Lonneke Broadribb, Bindi's friend from primary school, said Harris had never behaved inappropriately towards her and said he would greet people with a "big cuddle or a kiss" but that it was affectionate, not sexual. 
  Wednesday 28 May: Harris admits admiring 13-year-old 
 Under cross-examination, Harris admitted that he admired his daughter's friend sexually when she was just 13 years old. Wass quizzed him about a comment that he allegedly made to his daughter's friend about her bikini turning him on. "You made it plain to her you admired her and her body and you admired her sexually," said Wass. Harris replied: "It didn't compute to that in my mind." He conceded that in "hindsight" he supposed that saying to a 13-year-old that she looks great in a bikini was a sexual remark. "It seems from your answers to the questions that you admired her body sexually during that holiday," said the prosecutor. "It’s possible, yes," Harris replied. 
 But the entertainer insisted that nothing had happened sexually with the woman until she was 18. Harris admitted to hiding his "dark side" and not being the "whitest of white and pure" but insisted his accusers were lying. When asked why he lied in his first statement to police officers about having only two sexual encounters with his daughter's friend in her late 20s, Harris replied: "We had two very attractive young ladies in the lawyer's chamber when I was drafting my statement and I was just embarrassed." 
  Tuesday 27 May: Harris sings Jake the Peg 
 The defence opens its case and Rolf Harris takes the witness stand. The 84-year-old laughed and even broke into song as he described his early life and rise to fame. He demonstrated the sound of a "wobble board", as well as how he would blow into a didgeridoo, before singing a verse from his 1965 single Jake The Peg. 
 When asked about the allegations of abuse, Harris told the court that they simply never happened. He admitted to having a sexual relationship with his daughter's friend, but said this had only begun once she was 18 and said she "seemed to be welcoming the whole business and enjoying it". He revealed that their last sexual encounter was when the woman was aged 29. After that he had an affair with another woman, who was staying in his family home. His wife later found out and was "devastated". At the time of two other alleged assaults, Harris claimed he was not even in the country. 
 The judge revealed today that Harris had been spotted drawing sketches in the dock last week. Mr Justice Sweeney said the sketching "was innocent", but the drawings had been confiscated and destroyed. Jurors were told "not to hold it against the defendant in any way". 
  Friday 23 May: no evidence to back claims 
 Jurors have been told by the defence that there is "no independent evidence" that proves Harris was at two of the events where he allegedly groped two women. Despite searching newspaper archives, no trace could be found of Harris appearing at the Portsmouth community centre in 1969 or at the celebrity event in Cambridge in 1975. The prosecution wraps up its case. 
  Thursday 22 May: mother and daughter describe abuse 
 A mother and daughter have given evidence via video link from New Zealand. Harris allegedly rubbed himself against the mother, moments after molesting her teenage daughter at a promotion at a small hardware shop in Australia in 1991. The older woman said she told Harris he was "a disgusting creature" and claimed Harris had told her "she likes it" – apparently referring to her daughter. 
  Wednesday 21 May: Tonya Lee defends selling her story 
 Lee was cross-examined by the defence, which claimed that she made up the claims to sell her story to pay off debts. Lee admitted that she had got the date of the alleged offence wrong by at least one month and that she owed Aus$13,000 in taxes and credit card debts – but she denied "spicing up" her story for the media. During the afternoon session, Lee's brother told the court that she had once described Harris as a "kiddie toucher or kiddie fiddler". Later, a make-up artist told the jury she was groped by Harris while working on a TV show in Australia in 1986. 
  Tuesday 20 May: alleged victim 'assaulted in London pub' 
 The court has heard from the first witness to waive her right to anonymity. Tonya Lee claimed she developed eating disorders and alcoholism after being indecently assaulted as a 15-year-old in a pub by Harris in 1986. She said they met in a London pub on her first night in the UK with an Australian youth theatre group. After praising her singing voice, Harris allegedly asked her to sit on his lap before assaulting her. When she tried to escape to the toilet, Harris allegedly waited outside and gave her "a big bear hug" before putting his hand down her top and inside her tights and underwear. "I was gobsmacked," she said. Lee admitted that she had sold her story to Australian media last year for more than £30,000, but said this was "a huge mistake" and insisted it did not undermine the truth of her story. 
  Monday 19 May: Harris 'introduced child to tongue kiss' 
 The court heard from another three women who separately claim Harris indecently assaulted them. One woman described Harris as a "disgusting, vile, repulsive man" who groped her when she was 16 as they danced at a public event. She only reported the incident to the police when she read that he had been arrested in 2012. Another woman said she was aged 11 and wearing her pyjamas when Harris assaulted her in Darwin, Australia, in 1969. Now in her mid-50s, the woman told the court: "He asked me how old I was. He said: 'Good. I want to be the first one to introduce you to a tongue kiss.'" The woman said Harris then pulled her towards him and kissed her. She said she was "absolutely repulsed" by it. A third woman told the court she feared she might be raped at the age of 18 when Harris pulled her into a side room of a bar in Malta and forcibly kissed and groped her. 
  Thursday 15 May: Harris 'groped girl of seven or eight' 
 A second alleged victim, now in her early 50s, gave evidence. The woman claimed Harris "aggressively and forcefully" groped her when she was seven or eight, twice putting his hand between her legs after she had queued for his autograph at a community centre in Portsmouth in the late 1960s. Tearfully, she told the court that she "wasn't the same child" after the assault. 
 Another witness took the stand to describe how Harris had groped her when she was working as a waitress at a 'Celebrity It's a Knock Out' event in Cambridge at the age of 13 or 14 in 1975. Also close to tears, the woman said Harris put his arm around her shoulder before gripping her bottom several times. 
  Wednesday 14 May: Harris admits to affair 
 The court heard from the first alleged victim's mother, father, brother and friend, none of whom can be named. The father said he wrote an outraged letter to Harris when he found out about the assault claims. "All I know is that I wrote saying I presumed whatever had taken place has been the cause of her drinking, and I really was very, very angry. In the letter I just said that I did not want to see him again." The court has been shown Harris's reply to that letter, in which he begs forgiveness, admitting to a sexual relationship with the daughter but saying it only began when she was an adult. 
 The alleged victim's brother told the court that he rang Harris after being told about the allegations, threatening violence over the abuse of his sister. Harris allegedly told him "It takes two to tango." 
  Tuesday 13 May: witness denies 'sexual chemistry' 
 Harris's defence barrister, Sonia Woodley, cross-examined the first witness who claimed she was sexually assaulted by the entertainer from the age of 13 to 29. Woodley suggested that the witness had a "consenting sexual relationship" with the defendant from the age of 18. The witness denied that there was "sexual chemistry" between them and said she did not consent to the encounters. 
 Woodley read from a diary entry written by the witness on a day Harris allegedly assaulted her on holiday. "Today was great, we went on the beach and went swimming," the witness wrote, mentioning nothing of the attack. In response, the woman said: "The day was great up until the point he took the towel out and put it round me and fondled me. I wouldn't put that in the diary. I would make it sound better in the diary." 
  Monday 12 May: woman describes holiday abuse 
 The first alleged victim to give evidence was a woman, now in her late 40s, who was friends with Harris's daughter Bindi when they were young girls. Speaking from behind a screen, she told the court that she was first touched by Harris on holiday when she was 13. On another occasion, the victim claimed, Harris assaulted her as his daughter Bindi slept in an adjoining bed. The witness said she soon developed a drinking habit and the sexual contact continued until she was 29. She said she felt unable to stop it. "I should have shouted and screamed," she told the court. It was not until she was in her early 30s that she told her parents. She stopped drinking in 2000 but still receives treatment for anxiety and panic attacks. 
 Harris sat in the glassed-in dock, listening impassively to proceedings through a hearing loop headset, reports  The Guardian . The woman explained that she eventually went to the police after seeing Harris on television at the Queen's diamond jubilee concert in 2012. "It was like he'd invaded my home every time I switched the telly on. You flick over and there's his mug," she said. "That's when I decided I wasn't going to have any more of it." 
  Friday 9 May: Harris compared to 'Jekyll and Hyde' 
 The prosecution opened its case, accusing Harris of being a serial molester who used his celebrity status to publicly grope victims. Prosecuting lawyer Sasha Wass described Harris as a "Jekyll and Hyde" character with his charm and talent concealing the "dark side" of a man who "exploited the very children who were drawn to him".  
 She stressed that none of the alleged victims knew each other and almost all went to the police in the wake of the  Jimmy Savile  case. She told the jury: "You have to ask yourself: have all the girls, unknown to each other, made it up? Or are they telling the truth and they are describing the dark side of Mr Harris, the Mr Hyde that lies within." 
  Thursday 8 May: jurors are sworn in 
 A jury of six men and six women have been sworn in. Three extra jurors were also chosen in case there are any issues that prevent the existing jurors hearing the case. For example, if they recognise one of the witnesses. 
  Tuesday 6 May: Harris arrives in court 
 Rolf Harris, accompanied by his wife Alwen, arrived at Southwark Crown Court for the start of his trial. The 84-year-old entertainer, from Bray, Berkshire, denies assaulting four girls, the youngest of whom was seven or eight, between 1968 and 1986. The four complainants are expected to take the stand, as well as several "bad character" witnesses, mainly women from Australia and New Zealand who allege Harris also assaulted them. These alleged offences took place outside the UK too long ago to be prosecuted in a British court. The trial, which is being heard in front of Mr Justice Sweeney, begins with jury selection.  ·   
       Crime        Operation Yewtree    sex abuse allegations    Mr Justice Sweeney    Jimmy Savile