D’you often get molested on a Saturday morning?
What Rolf Harris ‘asked girl, 13, as he assaulted her in front of stars’
ROLF Harris sexually assaulted a 13year-old girl in front of celebrities including George Michael and asked her ‘do you often get molested on a Saturday morning’, a court heard yesterday.
The disgraced former entertainer is accused of using his celebrity status to carry out a string of ‘brazen’ sex attacks on seven women and girls as young as 12, including a blind, disabled woman.
The 86-year-old paedophile went on trial yesterday, appearing via a digital link from Stafford Prison where he is serving a five-year sentence for sexually assaulting four women and girls.
It is the first time in British legal history that a defendant has been allowed to stand trial via a video link from prison, rather than appearing in the dock. Harris claims he will be too ‘ill, tired, or hungry’ to attend court in person.
Southwark Crown Court heard how he preyed on women and children in front of their parents and even pop stars at TV studios, radio shows, a youth music festival, and after-show parties over 30 years.
On New Year’s Eve in 1983, he is accused of groping a 13-year- old girl in a room while show guests, including Michael, his Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley and singer Howard Jones, were ‘milling about’, along with BBC presenters such as Sarah Greene, John Craven, Mike Read, Keith
‘Slobbered all over her’
Chegwin and Maggie Philbin. The youngster was one of a group of children invited to attend a live broadcast of the hit show, Saturday Superstore, at the BBC Television Centre in West London.
After the show, when the guests and presenters retired to the Green Room for refreshments, Harris is said to have slid his hands over the 13-year-old’s breasts, quietly saying: ‘Do you often get molested on a Saturday morning?’
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees, QC, said Harris claims the phrase was innocent, adding: ‘Whilst the defendant accepts he may have used a phrase similar to the one recalled by the victim, he contends that any such phrase used by him was wholly innocent and that she has placed the phrase entirely out of its true context.’
On another occasion the married artist is accused of fondling a 16- year- old ‘gopher’ after taking part in a TV celebrity sports contest called Star Games in 1978. A year earlier, he is said to have pounced on a blind disabled woman at London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital. The alleged victim, who was 27, claims he approached her, saying: ‘Has anyone told you what a good-looking woman you are?’
When she went to shake hands, Harris kissed the back of her neck and ‘began slobbering over her’, putting his hand down her skirt and touching her bottom, the court heard. Undeterred by her protests, he removed her protective glasses and grabbed her breasts, it was said.
Harris is also accused of preying on two young fans who asked for his autograph. He allegedly told a girl of 12 ‘let’s give you a little cuddle’ before slipping his hands inside her knickers as she stood next to her mother, who had brought her to see the star at a radio station in Portsmouth in 1977.
A woman who was allegedly molested during a music festival at the age of 14 said she was ‘shocked and frightened’ when the ‘smirking’ star pulled her on to his lap and slipped his hand up her skirt.
Harris is also accused of targeting an 18year-old girl, stroking her back as he said: ‘If you were to join up the two dimples on a woman’s back to your bum crack, it would make the shape of a diamond.’
The eldest woman was 42 when she was allegedly groped in 2004 at a ‘wrap party’ for a TV programme called Test Your Pet, hosted by Harris and Kate Humble.
Mr Rees told the jury: ‘One notable feature of the case is that none these assaults is alleged to have happened in private.
‘You will want to consider whether Mr Harris’s celebrity status played any part in making him apparently so brazen in what it is alleged that he did.’
Harris’s wife Alwen and daughter Bindi were notably absent from court yesterday. His niece Jenny Harris was the only family member to attend.
Harris denies seven counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault.
The trial continues.