Survivor says song by disgraced Harris proves ‘he doesn’t care’
ROLF Harris’s song mocking his victims shows that, after a year in prison, he “still doesn’t care”, one of them has said.
“There’s no alternative but to take very seriously the fact that after a year, of a guilty verdict, sitting in a prison, he still doesn’t take responsibility, he still doesn’t care,” said Karen Gardner, who was assaulted by the star in Cambridge in 1977 when she was 16. Her written evidence formed part of the prosecution case at Harris’s trial.
In a letter, the disgraced entertainer said his victims were “joining the feeding frenzy” by getting their “hooks into his dough”. He also said his life behind bars was “no hardship really”.
The 85 - year -old was handed a six-year jail term last year for a string of sex attacks on girls as young as seven.
His letter was reportedly sent from Stafford Prison to a friend, who handed it to a newspaper.
One line of the song, which Harris said he would like to set to country rock music, reads: “Perhaps you believe you’re pretty still, some perfumed sultry wench?”
Other lines say: “Make him burn, get your 50-year-old hooks into his dough.
“Come and join the feeding frenzy, girls.”
Ms Gardner, who works for BBC Wiltshire, said: “I was less harmed than most of the girls, but I was only 16. He did assault me.
“One of the things he says is that his victims have come out 30, 40 years ago. I can remember that his aftershave smelled of spice, that his breath smelled of menthol, that his hands were so sweaty they stained my jeans.
“None of us need this and if he gets parole, if he gets out before the end of his sentence, how do we ever feel that society is looking after us or any of the other people he hurt, or anyone that anyone hurts in that situation?”
Asked if the letter was a surprise, she said: “He’s a typical offender of that nature – he used his hands and his words to damage young women. It was sexual, it was about power, but he didn’t leave any physical evidence.
“That is one of the things that is most upsetting, I suppose, about what came out ye s t er d ay , is t he comments from people who support him or don’t want to believe what he did.”
Last month the Crown Prosecution Service was handed a “full file” of evidence about further allegations against Harris, according to sources.
He was unmasked as a predatory paedophile when he was found guilty of 12 indecent assaults, at London’s Southwark Crown Court last July.