Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)

HARRIS CLEARED OF 1 SEX ASSAULT... 11 STILL STAND

- BY TOM PETTIFOR Chief Crime Correspond­ent

ROLF Harris has had a conviction for indecently assaulting an eight-year-old girl overturned by the Court of Appeal.

The 87-year-old former TV star was cleared of groping the autograph hunter in the late 1960s but rejected his bid to appeal his remaining conviction­s.

His lawyers presented new evidence about the alleged sex attack at a community centre in Portsmouth, Hants, in 1969.

At the court in Central London, judge Lord Justice Treacy said a key witness’s evidence was “a fantasy”. David James had told the jury he was on leave from a tour of duty in Korea “notwithsta­nding the ending of the war there being a decade-and-a-half prior to 1969”.

Mr James was the only witness to back the alleged victim’s claim that Harris visited the centre.

Lord Justice Treacy said inforjudge­s mation now available “tends to suggest that his account of recent service in Korea was a fantasy”.

Harris was jailed in 2014 for five years and nine months after being convicted of assaults which took place between 1968 and 1986.

He has since been released. LOOKS like beaming Mel B has put her troubles behind her and is back in the pink again in LA.

Maybe life is looking rosier for the ex-spice Girl, 42, after she settled a domestic violence claim with hubby Stephen Belafonte.

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APPEAL Rolf Harris

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