Rolf Harris sentenced to 5 years, 9 months prison.
Rolf Harris has been sentenced following his conviction of child sex charges in the UK.
- Published by David Knox
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Rolf Harris has been sentenced to 5 years, 9 months prison.
The veteran entertainer, 84, was convicted of 12 counts of indecent assault on four girls on Monday.
Harris listened carefully but showed no visible emotion as the judge delivered his sentence today.
“You took advantage of the trust placed in you through your celebrity status on 3 victims,” the judge said.
“You clearly got a thrill from committing offences while others were nearby.
“You have shown no remorse at all. Your reputation lies in ruins.
“You have nobody to blame but yourself.”
He was jailed under the terms of the law at the time of the assaults, which date between the late 1960s and 1985. Each offence carried a maximum term of between two and 10 years but it was up to the judge to determine whether terms run concurrently or consecutively.
Harris was seen leaving his riverside home by boat earlier today. He entered court accompanied by his daughter Bindi, and niece. His wife, Alwen, was not in court for his sentencing.
Earlier, Harris listened impassively as victim impact statements were read out. His daughter’s friend said the abuse he inflicted had made her drink, wrecked her career and given her panic attacks.
A statement by the woman who was eight when she was groped said she had been “an innocent” at the time and was left an “angry child”. Harris had done it “for fun and probably forgot about it”, she said.
The prosecution barrister, Sasha Wass QC, told the court that Harris had also been charged with four counts of viewing indecent images, which were to have been tried separately, but the CPS would not pursue these charges in light of Monday’s guilty verdicts.
The defence counsel, Sonia Woodley QC, said in mitigation that apart from the assaults against Bindi’s friend, Harris’s crimes had been brief and “opportunistic, not predatory”. For the last 20 years he had led an “upright life”, and he had been patron of 16 charities.
Woodley asked the judge to give Harris a sentence “which gives him some hope for the future”.
Harris now faces the possibility of losing much of his £11m fortune after some victims contacted a law firm specialising in civil compensation claims over sexual abuse.
Earlier today New Zealand MP Maggie Barry, a former high-profile broadcaster, said she was in her 20s and working in a regional radio station in the 1980s when Harris groped her.
“He suddenly started with the wandering hands and groping and when he put his hand on my leg, I said ‘You can stop that right now’,” she said.
“I stood up and said ‘You’re a sleazy creep’, at which point he got a bit nasty,” she said.
In Western Australia, Harris’ home town of Bassendean has voted to strip Harris of honours and remove all his art from display. At an hour-long meeting councillors voted four to two to remove all of Harris’s artwork from the town’s administration building and place them in indefinite storage.
The council voted unanimously to remove Harris’s freemanship, effective immediately.
It will also remove a bicentennial plaque dedicated to Harris.
Source: The Guardian, ABC
20 Responses
They are not equal but being equated is my point.
‘He suddenly started with the wandering hands and groping and when he put his hand on my leg, I said ‘You can stop that right now’,” she said.’
You are quoting this example which Harris wasn’t convicted of and is less serious than what Harris was convicted of. Hughes committed less serious offences and got twice the sentence.
To be seen as fair justice needs to be consistent.
For a sentence to serve as a deterrent you need to catch a lot of perpetrators and punish them swiftly. Harris was not found guilty of any offence later than the 80s. This is punishment for Harris’s past crimes.
Wonder if he will do his own Jail House Rock with wobble board. He will get more on appeal, lots more
Agree with cnrmlj,Should be for ever&rot away inJail
Harris got away with it because groping used to be OK. Most people don’t complain and if they did prosecutions were rarely launched for just groping. Several of Hughes’s offenses were the subject of complaints made to the police in the 80s but chances of conviction were small so prosecutions were not launched.
It is only recently that things have changed.
Harris’s sentence has been sent for review but you have to have consistency. A man was sentenced to a lesser non-parole period for raping a 14-year-old girl in WA last fortnight.
So what should the gaol time be for putting your hand on somebodies leg be?
Pertinax: Oral sex and digital penetration of a minor does not equal groping or putting a hand on a leg, nor does current child porn use.
Stan: No mate, but clarification has cleared up for me.
David Knox, I think Dayman’s point was obvious from the first reading. You were just being reactionary.
I’m sorry if that seemed offensive. I am merely stating a discussion point about what many believe to be too light a sentence.
One of the main reasons for criminal punishment is deterrence. Lighter sentences given to people the older they get, the longer they get away with it. May fail to fulfill this modality.
He benefited because he got away with it for so long. That is offensive.
Thanks, better context.
@cnrmlj – I disagree. His crimes were not at the worst end of the scale and therefore do not warrant the harshest punishment. Plus, as par3182 says, at his age the sentence represents a substantial portion of whatever good years he has left.
However, it is at the lower end of the range that I was expecting and the crown may yet appeal the leniency of the sentence. Plus, the police are considering further allegations which may see Harris face additional charges and possibly serve more gaol time.
I think Dayman made a valid point.
He’s not condoning it, just saying what is one line of thought.
I’ve heard reports he’ll probably only serve 3 years of the 5 years and 9 months sentence. What a joke.
Good to see him going to jail for what has been exposed about him. Sadly many people thought it was ok back them to do this kind of thing cause it was not spoken about publicly
I actually don’t think he was 100% there. A bit different. A big kid himself and kids/children loved and connected with him.
Good he has been exposed and this issue spoken about in society rather than kept quiet
Dayman: very offensive to victims everywhere.
This whole sorry saga is just another example of just how dangerous the ‘ in the click mob; can be with the ‘ nudge nudge wink wink’ protectionism ( of just whose careers???).
One can look no further than the ‘Jimmy Savile Horrors’ to make one ask who is worst the ‘perpetrator’ or those who knowingly ‘permit and protect’ them.
Should any of these surviving perpetrators be the only ones going to prison, or at least should many others have their current lifestyles now deservedly abused, if only as moral compensation, for their many ;undeserving’ victims
Wonder what sort of treatment he will get in jail, hardly see him being in general population and I’m sure he will get reasonably looked after
It’s that strange thing. Do horrible things, live most of your life not being held accountable. If you pay a small price at the end. Maybe it was worth being scumbag???
A small price to pay for his lifetime of sleaze.
Sentence was about right on what I thought,5-6 years,out in half that.Sentences are never long enough in the public eye but there has to be some kind of sliding scale.As for removing the grubs bicentennial plaque somebody last night helped the shire of Bassendean with the task…they stole it….
At 84, it kind of is.
Disgraceful. Should be for the term of his natural life.