Daughter fears Harris trial could kill parents

The strain of Rolf Harris’ court trial over a string of alleged sex assaults could kill him and his wife, their daughter told the jury yesterday.

‘‘My parents are 80-something,’’ Bindi Nicholls said. ‘‘This is appalling for them. I’m frightened they are going to die in the middle of this case.”

Her appeal came after Southwark Crown Court was shown film of the entertainer appearing in Cambridge in the 1970s. Harris had previously claimed that he first visited the city a few years ago. Sasha Wass, QC, prosecuting, claimed he deliberately misled the jury by insisting he could not have assaulted a girl in Cambridge in the 1970s.

Jurors have heard that one alleged victim, then aged 14, claims he groped her bottom outside an event in Cambridge. The court was shown footage of the television show filmed in 1978 in Cambridge, in which Harris was a team captain.

Wass said the video supported ‘‘pretty much everything’’ the complainant had said.

The performer told the court he had not deliberately lied, but had forgotten about the show.

Harris faces 12 counts of indecent assault on four women. The case continues. In 1873, Louis Vernon Vaughan did what countless 12-year-old boys have done before or since, by soaking a used stamp from an envelope and placing it in an album. Featuring a faded image of a sailing ship, that British Guiana one-cent magenta stamp issued in 1856 is expected to sell this month for up to US$20 million ($23.6 million) at auction in New York, making it not only the world’s most valuable stamp but also, by weight, the most expensive object ever made.