Rolf Harris Trial: Entertainer 'Known As The Octopus Because He Put His Hands All Over Women'
1:56 pm
You can read the letter Rolf Harris wrote to the father of one of his alleged victim's in full here.
The letter, written in March 1997, denies the girl's claims that the entertainer started abusing her when she was just 13, instead claiming that "nothing physical took place" until she was 18 in the early 1980s.
He says he believed that "everything that had taken place had progressed from a feeling of love and friendship", and there was "no rape, no physical forcing".
But he begs the girl's father for forgiveness, and expresses regret following a confrontation with the girl - by then an adult - when she said she had always been scared of him.
1:09 pm
Rolf Harris' daughter Bindi told the girl she suspected her father was having a fling with the housekeeper.
When the Jimmy Savile probe began in 2012 the alleged victim told police and gave them the letter to her dad.
Harris was interviewed by police in November 2012.
The case is now taking a break for lunch.
12:54 pm
The jury is told that the victims' dad then sent a letter confronting Harris, and he replied begging for forgiveness, and said the girl told him "how could she say no to the great television star Rolf Harris".
Harris insists in the letter nothing happened until the girl was 18, and he was sickened by what he had done.
Harris begged the girl for forgivess.
The letter, which is being read to court, says: "As I do these animal programmes I see the unconditional love that dogs give their owners and I wish I could start to love myself again."
12:47 pm
The girl once told a friend that Rolf Harris was a "bit of a dirty old man".
The girl finally told her brother and parents she had been "abused all her life" by Rolf Harris.
In 1997 the alleged victim, now an adult, asked Harris to visit her. She told him he had ruined her life.
Harris told the girl he considered her a friend. She hit him about the head.
12:32 pm
The victim went to see Harris in Cinderella in Wimbledon in 1994.
She performed a sex act on him in his dressing room before the panto started.
She brought the abuse to an end when she was 29.
She went on to write Harris a "rambling letter" asking for money for a charity she had set up. He refused.
Ms Wass said it may be suggested the girl was trying to blackmail Harris.
12:23 pm
Ms Wass said the girl was "totally controlled" by Harris.
"The girl described Mr Harris as effectively using her for his own sexual gratification. He never treated her as an equal or a human being.
"He never had a meaningful conversation with her.
"She was just his little toy. As a result of his grooming her, the girl had become completely compliant."
After the girl turned 19 there were occasions when she consented to sexual encounters with Harris, which continued until the girl was 29.
On one occasion she performed a sex act on Harris on the M4 motorway in Harris' red Mercedes when she was 22 in 1987.
12:18 pm
When the girl was 14, Harris followed her to her room, and said she "turned him on" before assaulting her.
Ms Wass says one assault took place when other people, including Rolf's wife, were in the room.
She says: "The girl got the impression that Mr Harris actually enjoyed the thrill of the risk he was taking."
Ms Wass said earlier Harris would touch women and children in "brazen circumstance", the jury is told. This may have been "part of the excitement", the prosecution says.
When the girl turned 15, teachers began to notice her demeanour.
Her form mistress wrote in 1980: "She is prone to tears and has twice been weeping about private/home matters.
12:11 pm
Rolf went on to touch the girl several more times during the holiday, including after they moved on to Australia for the trip.
When she returned home, she developed a drinking problem at age 14.
The girl would drink a "shed load" of gin when Harris came to visit her family home.
She says Harris would abuse her in her bedroom and when she stayed with his family in Bray, Berks.
She drank to block out what was happening to her.
Ms Wass said: "She was just his little toy."
12:07 pm
Prosecution now going into more detail on the accusations against Rolf.
The first victim was the daughter of family friends of Harris and his wife Alwen Hughes.
Prosecutor Sasha Wass QC said the star began to abuse the girl when she was 13 during a holiday to Hawaii in 1978.
Harris approached the girl in her room after she came out of the shower wrapped only in a towel, then indecently assaulted her "on the pretext of a hug and tickle".
Ms Wass said: "You will see a pattern during this case of Mr Harris approaching girls in a purely friendly way and then, once he is in close physical contact with them, he takes advantage of the situation in order to indecently assault them."
Seven counts of indecent assault relate to this girl from age 13 to 19 between 1978 and 1985.
However, prosecution says the girl was abused by Harris up until she turned 29.
11:54 am
Ms Wass tells the jury they will hear from eight victims.
In the case of the first victim, who was abused from the age of 13 over a period of 15 years, Ms Wass reveals Harris wrote a letter of confession to the girl's dad.
Ms Wass says it was a "confess and avoid" letter because he admits to a sexual relationship but denies it happened before the girl turned 18.
Ms Wass says: "It's rather like when President Clinton said he smoked cannabis but says he didn't inhale."
11:44 am
Details of the victims' allegations are now being given.
One girl, the prosecution says, became an alcoholic due to the trauma of alleged abuse at the hands of Harris.
The girl says she was "like his little toy".
11:42 am
Ms Wass tells the jury that Harris was known as 'The Octopus' among showbiz circles because he "put his hands all over women".
"There is a Jekyll and Hyde nature to Rolf Harris," she says.
"Concealed behind this charming and amicable children's entertainer lay a man who exploited the very children who were drawn to him."
11:37 am
The prosecution case against Rolf Harris has begun.
The jury are being given an outline of the case against the Aussie star.
Prosecutor Sasha Wass QC gives an overview of Harris' "glittering" career, including painting a portrait of the Queen for her 80th birthday and being awarded a CBE in 2006.
But she says he used his fame to abuse girls and young women.
Ms Wass said: "Rolf Harris' fame and reputation meant no-one suspected or challenged his behaviour."
She added: "Mr Harris was too famous, too powerful and his reputation made him untouchable."
10:58 am
There's been a slight delay to the start of Rolf Harris' trial this morning.
The case was due to get under way at 10am, but we're still waiting for proceedings to begin.
We'll bring you updates as soon as the hearing starts.
10:03 am
Rolf has arrived in the court room and has taken his seat in the dock.
He's wearing a grey suit with a bright purple patterned tie.
His wife Alwen has been guided to her seat in the public gallery by her niece.
9:53 am
Rolf Harris has just arrived at Southwark Crown Court for his trial.
He's joined by friends and family who have been supporting him throughout the week as counsel prepared to begin the case.
The opening of the trial by Sasha Wass QC is expected to begin promptly this morning.
Court Two is packed with media from the UK and Australia.
9:07 am
Harris is facing 12 counts of indecent assault, to which he pleaded not guilty in January.
Yesterday Mr Justice Sweeney told the jury: "I am the judge of the law, likewise you are the judges of the facts.
"As judge of the law, I have various duties to manage the conduct of the trial, to see fair play and to rule, typically in your absence, on any legal argument and in due course to sum the case up to you, directing you on the law that you will have to apply.
"As judges of the facts, your duty, pooling your common sense and experience of life, is to assess the witnesses and the other evidence that is put before you in the trial, and in due course to decide the relevant facts and thereby, having applied my directions of law, to reach a verdict according to the evidence.
"A number of duties follow from your role as judges of the facts. It's your duty to try the case on the evidence. The evidence is the evidence that you hear in this courtroom and nothing else."
8:24 am
Artist and entertainer Rolf Harris will go on trial for a string of alleged indecent assaults today, with the prosecution due to set out their case against him this morning.
Harris, 84, is accused of indecently assaulting four alleged victims - the youngest of whom was seven or eight, and the oldest 19 - between 1968 and 1986.
He denies all the charges against him.
A jury of six men and six women was sworn in at Southwark Crown Court yesterday, along with three extras - two men and one woman - in case there are any issues that prevent the existing jurors hearing the case.
We'll bring you live updates from the court room throughout the day here.
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