Rolf Harris walks free, found not guilty of indecent assault
Rolf Harris says he wants to live the remainder of his life in peace after being found not guilty of indecent assault charges. Photo: AAP
Rolf Harris says he just wants to “spend my final years in peace” after being found not guilty on four indecent assault charges.
The 87-year-old entertainer was at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday to hear that the prosecution would not seek a further retrial on charges he groped three teenage girls.
The decision came after the jury of seven women and five men failed to reach a majority verdict on all four counts after deliberating for four hours and 47 minutes.
Accordingly, Judge Deborah Taylor discharged the jury and formally found Harris not guilty of the charges, meaning he no longer faces the prospect of further jail time.
He was released on bail from Stafford Prison on May 19 after serving time on previous convictions following his first trial in 2014.
The jury in his second trial in January this year found him not guilty of three indecent assault charges but could not reach verdicts on four, leading to the latest retrial.
After the hearing Harris’s solicitor Daniel Berke read a message from his client to waiting media outside the court.
“I am pleased it is finally over. I feel no sense of victory, just relief,” Harris said in the message.
“I am 87 years old with a sick wife (Alwyn) and I want to spend my final years in peace.”
Harris also thanked his legal and investigative teams.
“Above all I want to thank my wonderful friends and family who have supported me and Alwyn over this difficult period.”
Harris later left the court through a media scrum to get into a black Audi for the drive to his riverside home in Berkshire, west of London.
After the jury was discharged on Tuesday, prosecuting lawyer Jonathan Rees told the court that prosecutors had “come to the firm view” not to seek a retrial.
He told the judge the prosecution would not offer any evidence and invited her to enter not guilty verdicts on the four counts, which she then did.
Rees had argued that the complainants, unknown to each other, made very similar complaints that Harris quickly groped them at public events and the only reasonable explanation for such a coincidence was they were telling the truth.
Defence lawyer Stephen Vullo accused two of the women of fabricating their claims to “jump on the compensation bandwagon” and the other of making up her story up to advance a career as an advocate for sex abuse victims.
Harris was accused of touching a 14-year-old girl between her legs at a youth band event in London in 1971.
He was also accused of squeezing the breast of a 16-year-old girl and running his hand up between her legs in the back of a taxi at a celebrity sports event in 1978.
The third accusation was that he groped the breast of a 13-year-old girl after an entertainment show broadcast at the BBC Television Centre in 1983 and said to her, “Do you often get molested on a Saturday morning”.
– AAP