Harris cleared of latest child sex charges

COURT: Disgraced TV star walks free after retrial ends with hung jury

Disgraced television star Rolf Harris walked free from court yesterday after being cleared of the latest historical child sex charges against him.

Harris 87, was formally cleared of four counts of indecent assault against girls as young as 13 after a retrial ended with a hung jury.

The convicted paedophile had been released on licence from HMP Stafford part-way through the trial after serving less than three years of a five-year and nine-month sentence for unconnected sex attacks on young girls and women.

Harris left Southwark Crown Court in London in a media scrum but did not answer any questions.

In a statement read by his lawyer Daniel Berke outside court, the Australia-born ex-Animal Hospital presenter said he wanted to be left “in peace” with his frail wife Alwen, 85.

Harris had faced four charges of indecent assault over allegations involving three girls.

He had been accused of indecently touching a 14-year-old girl in 1971 after she asked him for an autograph at a music event for children in London.

The musician and artist had also been accused of twice groping a third teenage girl after he was paid £100 to appear on ITV celebrity show Star Games in 1978.

He was also alleged to have touched one complainant after a recording of the BBC children’s show Saturday Superstore in 1983 before asking her “do you often get molested on a Saturday morning?”

Harris, who denied all the charges, did not give evidence, with his lawyers saying he did not remember any of the events in question.

Picture: Getty. Rolf Harris leaves court after being cleared.