Children's entertainer Rolf Harris is reportedly getting increasingly unwell. Photo / AP
Children's entertainer Rolf Harris is reportedly getting increasingly unwell. Photo / AP
A new documentary about disgraced children’s entertainer Rolf Harris is set to air in a couple of days.
It comes amid the news that the Australian comedian’s health has taken a turn for the worse. He was beloved around the world for his countless TV shows and his hit song Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, but he was jailed in 2014 for indecently assaulting several young girls.
The first of the documentary’s two parts will air on ITV in the UK on Thursday night local time, featuring exclusive interviews with his accusers and others closely involved with his trial.
Rolf Harris with his portrait of Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. Photo / Getty Images
Ahead of its release, here’s everything you need to know.
Rolf Harris is 93 and in recent months has become “very sick and unwell”, according to a private investigator.
They told UK outlet MailOnline that the TV star is finding it difficult to talk or eat and has been living alone at his home in Berkshire since he got out of jail in 2017.
He was arrested in March 2013 for questioning amid the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal which developed in 2012, but was put on bail without being charged.
He was arrested again in August that year and was eventually charged with 12 counts of indecent assault against four girls aged eight to 19 that took place between 1968 and 1986.
Seven of those counts were in relation to a sexual relationship Harris had with one of his daughter Bindi’s friends, starting when she was 13.
Three of the charges related to Harris assaulting a 15-year-old Australian girl visiting the UK in 1986.
Another was that Harris sexually assaulted an 8-year-old girl who asked for his autograph in 1969.
Rolf Harris entertaining children with his artwork in 1986. Photo / Getty Images
He was found guilty on all counts of indecent assault in June 2014 and was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison, with the judge Mr Justice Sweeney telling him in court, “You have shown no remorse ... your reputation now lies in ruins, you have been stripped of your honours but you have no one to blame but yourself.”
Harris faced another trial in January 2017 and pleaded not guilty to seven more charges of indecent assault. He was acquitted of three charges and the jury was discharged from deliberating on the remaining four.
In November 2017, his previous conviction of the 8-year-old girl was overturned on the grounds that it was “unsafe”, although judges at the Court of Appeal dismissed his application to challenge his 11 other convictions.
After serving three years of his sentence, Harris was released from prison in May 2017.
He later shared a statement in the book Rolf Harris: The Defence Team’s Special Investigator Reveals the Truth Behind the Trials, written by William Merritt.
He wrote, “I understand we live in the post truth era and know few will want to know what really happened during the three criminal trials I faced – it’s easier to condemn me and liken me to people like Saville and Glitter.
“I was convicted of offences I did not commit in my first trial. That is not just my view but the view of the Court of Appeal who overturned one of my convictions. I had already served the prison sentence by the time of the appeal.
“I changed my legal team after the first trial, and I was told that if the truth was out there, William (Merritt) would find it and he did.”
Since his release, Harris has lived alone in Berkshire and has no contact with his relatives, the Harris family solicitor Daniel Burke told MailOnline.
Burke said he had not spoken to Harris’ daughter Bindi, nor had he been asked to make a statement about the entertainer’s deteriorating health.
Merritt saw Harris late last year, and told the outlet that he was very sick with neck cancer.
“When I saw him he was able to speak to me. He was with it, but he was obviously unwell,” he said.
If it’s an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111. If you’ve ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk confidentially, any time 24/7:
For more info or to web chat visit safetotalk.nz. Alternatively contact your local police station - click here for a list.If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it’s not your fault.
