Shamed star failed in bid to stay home during trial

ROLF Harris made an audacious bid to stand trial on indecent assault charges from the comfort of his own home, it can now be reported.

The disgraced 87-year-old asked to appear via a video link from his Berkshire house to be close to his ill Welsh wife Alwen, 85, after his release from prison.

Harris left HMP Stafford on licence part-way through his retrial after serving less than three years of a five-year-andnine-month sentence handed down in 2014 for unconnected sex attacks on young girls and women. He was granted bail by Judge Deborah Taylor for the remainder of the retrial, having previously appeared via video link from Stafford, as he did in the original hearing in January and February.

But the judge rejected his request to remain at his home in Bray, near Maidenhead, ordering that he must come to court each day.

This was despite him offering to foot the bill for a professional video link to be installed.

Judge Taylor heard the argument over Harris’ location in a private hearing “in chambers”, which the public and press were excluded from. But she had earlier heard a brief outline from defence barrister Stephen Vullo QC in open court while the jury was absent.

Mr Vullo said the application was for “video link from home address”, after the judge raised the idea of another location being used. He said: “An alternative address would have to be a hotel and part of the application for bail, part of the reason for the change is to spend more time with his partner.

“She isn’t getting better.”