[audience cheering, applauding]
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous Rolf Harris!
["Jake the Peg" playing]
♪ I'm Jake the Peg Diddly-diddly-diddly-lum ♪
♪ With this extra leg ♪
[Rolf] Entertaining is like a drug. The greatest drug in the world.
The public adulation, the applause.
It's hard to give up these things if you're born to be a show-off.
[dramatic music playing]
Rolf's autobiography tells us the story
that he wants the world to believe about him.
- The lovable larrikin. - Okay, knock that off.
[Chelsea] The people's painter.
- [Rolf] Can you tell what it is yet? - [audience laughing]
It's been said of him that after Skippy, he's the world's best-loved pet Aussie.
But the most authentic account of him is by the people he impacted.
That's around about the age that…
I was when Rolf Harris assaulted me.
I was 11 years old.
[Sunny] I was really like, what's going on here?
[Tonya] My whole life was, don't let anybody know.
It took 27 years for me to come forward to anybody about it.
[Chip] I first came into contact with Victim A
when she started to disclose that she had been abused as a child by Rolf Harris.
[Ben] The victim had been a family friend of the Harris family.
She just thought, this is enough.
[Rolf] For years, I'd been waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and say…
we found you out.
[reporter] The Australian entertainer Rolf Harris has pleaded
not guilty to charges of indecent assault.
[Sasha] The danger was they simply would refuse to believe that he was guilty.
The nice Mr Harris would never touch up children.
I think he's just one of the worst criminals
that I've ever been in a courtroom with.
- [dramatic music playing] - [audience applauding]
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter 2] The police investigation Operation Yewtree
was set up to investigate this man.
[Callum] After the death of Jimmy Savile, who was a well-known entertainer,
it emerged that Savile was a predatory paedophile.
And that led to a police investigation called Operation Yewtree.
[phone ringing]
[Gary] When Operation Yewtree first started…
information came in in a number of different ways.
There were thousands of messages…
intelligence, allegations that all needed to be gone through carefully.
It was a really staggering task and one that I don't think any of us had…
- faced quite in the same way before. - [dramatic music playing]
[Ben] There were names that were coming forward that were already surreal,
I suppose, were the terms that were used. People who had been in the public focus,
stood for family entertainment and good clean kind of wholesome fun.
[children singing]
I'd watched him on his cartoon program. My family loved him.
♪ They've been gone, And the shirts that they were wearing… ♪
- ♪ What? ♪ - ♪ Yes ♪
[Ben] So to have his name, Rolf Harris,
put in with that, to me, was a huge surprise.
[indistinct chatter]
[Meiron] Savile was dead. He couldn't be prosecuted.
There was now a feeling that Rolf Harris should not be allowed
to get away with this, that he shouldn't go to his grave without facing justice.
The police have not done their job properly with Savile…
that maybe they had to do it this time with Harris.
[Ben] We conducted a search of his home address in Bray.
[doorbell rings]
[Ben] When we entered that address,
the only person who was actually present was his housekeeper.
We began searching the address, which was a really kind of large property.
Key evidence being found in Rolf's study…
- copies of his diaries. - [dramatic music playing]
[Ben] There was also some letters that we seized, certainly some photos.
His computer.
And they were all reviewed.
The computer that was seized from Harris' study showed to contain
indecent images of children,
which was quite a shocking revelation for the investigation.
[Nick] I was aware that this story was bubbling away,
that there was something going on.
Rumours started, names started circulating, social media, speculation.
Bray's quite a private neighbourhood.
Rolf's neighbours were not happy to see the press at all.
There were dark looks and glares from the Range Rovers.
When I was lurking outside his house with the press pack…
no one at that stage had put in print the name that would go with the rumours.
[Ben] We arranged for an initial interview to take place in a police building
in Wimbledon, southwest London.
He was quite arrogant,
and I think he thought he would walk out of there
and that would be the end of the matter.
[dramatic music playing]
My editors were very keen for me to pin down
Rolf in connection with it, but I couldn't name him.
You can't go into print without really, really knowing,
because this is a big accusation. This is massive.
If you're wrong, the repercussions are extraordinary.
As media interest grew in relation to Harris,
and his name was being mentioned around,
that's when the investigation really started to grow.
[Meiron] In Britain, it's very difficult to report allegations
against powerful people with big lawyers.
In early 2013, he was arrested, and it wasn't until April
when the Sun decided they were just going to go and run the story anyhow.
[reporter 3] Britain's Sun newspaper published
what has been circulating on social media for weeks.
Can I ask you for your reaction to the reports in The Sun newspaper this morning
that you've been arrested on suspicion of sex offences?
- [Rolf] No comment. - No comment?
[sombre music playing]
[reporter 4] They keep coming out now, these allegations.
There are more allegations of sexual abuse
emerging against Rolf Harris.
[reporter 5] Scotland Yard detectives say they have no comment
about the latest allegations.
All they would confirm is that officers have travelled recently to Australia.
[suspenseful music playing]
[upbeat music playing]
After going through an English winter, what better place to come for a holiday
than the northwest tip of the Northern Territory in Australia.
We're in Darwin, that's Darwin just over there.
[Rolf] We were back in Australia as a family to film Rolf's Walkabout,
the first documentary series to be shot in colour by the ABC.
When I read Rolf Harris's autobiography, I think he's cultivated…
an image as Mr Australia, this almost lovable,
adventurous character of outback Australia.
[Rolf] Oh, listen to the echo. Oh!
That every child would want to be around.
[Christine] I've been completely anonymous about this.
It takes a lot to be able to talk about it.
Just get rid of, thank God I haven't got make-up on.
I haven't spoken out to media or even the friends that I grew up with
about it because I just didn't feel comfortable,
I didn't want to upset anyone.
I should have been braver maybe and said something when he was alive,
you know, I…
but I didn't.
- [director] But you are now. - Hmm.
- [director] Are you nervous? - Yeah, very nervous.
It's just as well he's not here, you know, he's dancing down in hell.
So, you know, he's sweating more than I am. So…
[chuckles]
That's around about the age that…
I was when Rolf Harris assaulted me.
I was 11 years old.
I really wish that I'd been taught to push someone away from me.
[interviewer] Rolf, you've been to many remote areas of Australia…
You didn't call me Ralph by any chance, did you then?
[interviewer laughs]
Keep going, no don't stop, that's the best bit.
It's Rolf, but yeah, I really hate it.
Everyone else refers to him as Rolf, Rolf Harris,
but I just automatically think of him as Mr Harris.
When I was young, to me an adult was someone
that I needed to treat as an adult with respect.
[thunder rumbling]
[clinking]
[Christine] I was staying at a friend's house.
Her parents were good friends with Rolf Harris.
I came downstairs and I was in my jammies…
[dramatic music playing]
…and Mr Harris was downstairs.
I got towards the bottom of the stairs and he said to me,
"Oh, hello…
who are you"? And I said, "Oh, I'm…
Christine". And he said, "Oh, and how old are you"?
And I said, "Oh, I'm 11".
And he said, "Oh, just coming into womanhood".
He said, "Well, then allow me to be the first one
to introduce you to womanhood".
And so he said, "Come over here". Pulled me towards him.
And then… he then bent his head down and…
started kissing me and stuck his tongue down my throat.
And I was just frozen, absolutely.
And then he was just stroking me up and down and tongue kissing me.
And then he just stepped back and he said, "Well, welcome to womanhood".
- "Now you'll know what that's all about". - [sombre music playing]
[Christine] I told my parents what Rolf Harris did to me.
They didn't believe me.
They said, "Oh, you and your stories, Christine".
I thought, if my parents don't believe me, why would anyone else believe me?
I have downplayed it a lot. And I feel kind of like…
that I'm wasting people's time saying even anything about it.
But, you know, the whole thing has left
a mark on the way that I am as a person, even now.
I feel unsafe. I feel vulnerable. I feel terrified
that something's going to happen that I'm going to have no control over.
It's a bit like a jack-in-the-box that keeps coming out
- and frightening you each time. - [thunder rumbling]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Gary] We had very limited time working in Australia.
There was absolutely a race against time and with minimal resources.
[Ben] It's always difficult to investigate any kind of offence that's historic.
You're looking for other witnesses who can corroborate
what was happening at that time.
And over the period of ten, 20, 30 years, maybe in 40 years
when these offences were taking place.
Sing us a song while we wait. Come on.
♪ O ka re ka re a… ♪
[sombre music playing]
[reporter 6] Rolf Harris admits he's no expert on child abuse.
But feels compelled to use his showbiz pull to help draw attention
to what he sees as a major social problem.
I mean, I just started to be aware of the enormity of this problem.
Because it's like treading on eggs without breaking the shells.
It's such a taboo subject. Everybody is so…
touchy on it.
Statistics here in New Zealand, one woman in four…
was sexually molested before she was 16.
One in four.
He felt that was his protection. You've got the guy who's the celebrity,
who's the family favourite. He's actually a paedophile.
He's actually a monster. It's insane.
It's almost like Black Mirror, isn't it? It's almost, you know…
it's the ultimate twist ending, really.
I think it gets all the points in that I was after
to try and tell the whole story of the construction of the thing.
Don't put any powder on me, will you? Because I'm a man.
And don't get me looking too flash.
Makeup artists and wardrobe, we're the only ones that actually touch performers.
So we're crossing that aura, if you like, that boundary.
So I'm 23, 24 at the time. This is at the beginning of my career.
I was so excited. I was going to be working with Rolf Harris.
I was a little girl. I watched him on the wobbleboard.
I told my parents I was going to be working with him,
my friends, like, "Oh my goodness, it's going to be huge".
[dramatic music playing]
[Suzi] On the day, I was allocated
a little makeup room in the Channel 7 studios.
Rolf sat in my chair.
While I'm touching his face,
he gets his hand and he drops it down underneath the chair.
And I'm standing on this side of him.
And he ran his arm up and his hand up my leg inside my shorts.
I kind of felt like he was trying to feel my knickers.
It gave me a really huge shock.
I did ask him not to touch me, but I didn't do it loudly.
The number one rule for me
as a makeup artist is we don't upset the talent.
[sombre music playing]
[Suzi] From the makeup room, we then walked into the studio.
Now, there was a director there who was around the same age as Rolf.
What are we doing?
[Suzi] The director and him are talking about me and what I looked like.
What my legs look like and how shapely they were
and what my face looked like and what my body was like.
Each time it was time to powder his nose,
he would put both hands up the side of my legs
and run them straight up inside my shorts.
[dramatic music playing]
He would pull me towards him and try and crotch grind me.
[indistinct chatter]
[Suzi] Now, I'm in a room full of men.
The cameraman, the lighting guy,
the sound guy, there's all these men there.
Nobody said anything. Not one man asked him to stop.
The director egged him on.
He had taken carte blanche for six hours with running his hands up my legs,
on my thighs, touching me, trying to crotch grind me.
[sombre music playing]
At the very end of the day, I went in to see the lady who was running makeup.
I said to her, I have just had the worst day with a dirty old man.
And she said to me, "Oh, I thought you knew".
And I'm like, "I knew what"?
She said, "Oh, his nickname is the octopus".
[audience laughing]
[Rolf] Now, this one, you'd have him just resting his,
this little tentacle on his walking stick, which he carries there.
[Suzi] She said, I have a message from the Channel 7 executives.
She said, they just wanted to commend you on how you had conducted yourself.
They had all watched me get abused and assaulted,
and they were very happy with how I had behaved.
[dramatic music playing]
- [audience applauding] - [camera shutter clicking]
Rolf Harris was not passive during this time.
He had people who were working behind the scenes
to try and protect his interests.
He had plenty of money. He had plenty of friends.
He could afford the best advice.
He was not just passively waiting for this to happen.
[dramatic music playing]
[Tonya] His team started to try and find dirt on me.
So they would send private detectives to my family, to my neighbours.
They subpoenaed all my medical records
to make out that I was a nutcase, you know, crazy, a liar.
Anything that would put me in a bad light.
[Ben] Any time we tried to speak to any witness that we found…
we'd speak to them.
And then the next phone call we would get would be from Rolf's solicitors,
saying that, you know, if you want to speak to this person,
then you have to come through us.
We're going to try and control that element of the investigation around you.
[Kerry] Bruce is, in fact, in the audience. Hi, Bruce. Welcome.
Bruce Harris is Rolf's older brother and was also his manager for many years.
[Kerry] He's your little brother, isn't he?
]Everywhere I went, I couldn't get rid of him.
He called me and he said, "Well, you know, Rolf,
you know this couldn't possibly have happened".
I felt that I was being coerced to say he couldn't have done it.
[all laughing]
And that he was trying to get me to testify for the defence.
And I just said, I cannot possibly say that it didn't happen.
Then I'd be disbelieving Tonya and I'd be calling her a liar
and I was not prepared to do that.
I believed her and I wanted to support her.
And the last thing in the world I was going to do was…
call her a liar.
So by the time I walked into that courtroom,
I was furious with him.
- [dramatic music playing] - [indistinct chatter]
[reporter 7] Australian entertainer Rolf Harris has been charged
by British police with numerous counts of indecent assault
against teenage girls and of the making indecent images of a child.
[reporter 8] Rolf Harris faced court
and dozens of cameras, making no comment.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter 9] Australian entertainer Rolf Harris has pleaded not guilty
to charges of indecent assault.
[indistinct chatter]
[Sasha] When I was told that the defendant in this case was Rolf Harris,
I thought I have absolutely no chance of getting a conviction of this case
because he was universally adored.
The difficulty in prosecuting historic sex offences
is it often boils down to one person's word against another.
- [dramatic music playing] - [indistinct chatter]
[Sasha] A celebrity or a victim.
In this case, there were ten women,
all of whom made allegations against Rolf Harris.
Many of those allegations were completely unknown
to the other before they made them.
And despite that, the majority of them had strikingly similar features,
which would have made it the most remarkable coincidence
had they all just invented them.
[Callum] As the trial began, Rolf's defence team
decided to present the jury with…
the entertainer…
that they knew and loved, the very famous man, Rolf Harris.
[audience applauding]
And so they gave him a sort of "tour de celebrity" in the witness box.
[Rolf] If people were going to look at me when I walked into the room,
I might as well give them a good reason.
And at one point, he was asked about his song, "Jake the Peg".
And he started singing a few bars of "Jake the Peg"
to the jury from the witness box.
♪ I'm Jake the Peg Diddly diddly diddly lum ♪
♪ With his extra leg Diddly diddly diddly lum ♪
[Sasha] And as I looked over to the jury,
several members of the jury appeared to be…
in awe, captivated by his celebrity.
[audience applauding]
When celebrities are involved, there's a syndrome.
Firstly, people think they know you.
The nice Mr Harris would never touch up children.
- [audience applauding] - [indistinct chatter]
And the danger was they simply would refuse to believe,
whatever the evidence, that he was guilty.
[audience applauding]
Thank you.
At the trial, there were four main victims
that were presented within the prosecution.
The offences that had taken place in the UK.
[sombre music playing]
[Gary] In addition to that evidence, there were six character witnesses.
Their testimony was to show that these events were not isolated one-off events,
but they were a pattern of conduct across time and place.
[Ben] The key victim, known as Victim A,
was a close personal friend of his daughter,
Bindi Harris, and a childhood friend.
The abuse had begun when she was 13 years old.
Rolf Harris was perceived at that time as being a national treasure.
A man that works predominantly with children.
Now, here we are at a place
where most of us have learnt to swim, at a swimming pool.
That produces public safety videos in relation to the protection of children.
Oh, could you hang onto those for me for a minute?
I'm just going to go in with them on. I want you to watch closely
and see how many things you think I'm doing wrong here.
- Right, here we go. - [dramatic music playing]
[Ben] He was in a position of trust.
[Sasha] When Victim A was 13 years old,
the families by this stage knew each other very well,
and Rolf Harris invited Victim A to travel with him
and his daughter to Hawaii and Australia.
And because Rolf Harris was trusted, the family were delighted
to allow their daughter to travel with the Harris family.
Rolf Harris came into her room after she'd come out of the shower,
and he started by a bear hug, which was his MO, if you like,
and then started touching Victim A more seriously,
culminating in him digitally penetrating her vagina.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter 10] The alleged victim says she allowed herself to be abused by Harris
until the age of 29, having been groomed like a pet.
[Callum] Rolf Harris' defence was that
there had been consensual sexual activity between them
when she was an adult, but that the allegations against him
that related to her as a child had simply never happened.
[dramatic music playing]
[Sasha] There were several photographs
and video footage put before the jury of Victim A.
Rolf Harris himself took some video footage
of Victim A and Bindi by a pool…
and he honed in, not on his own daughter,
but on Victim A, who was wearing what he called a flesh-coloured bikini.
And much of the filming itself had quite a prurient quality.
And Mr Harris admitted in court
that he had complimented Witness A about her flesh-coloured bathing suit,
and I asked him about that, and I said that when you compliment…
a woman and say that's a nice bikini,
what you're actually saying is you've got a very nice body, and he agreed with that.
And then I suggested that he was complimenting her on her body
because he found her sexually attractive…
and he agreed with that, and then I asked him…
to remember that she was 13 years old at the time…
and he agreed with that.
I mean, you could have heard a pin drop.
You know, it was such a stupid thing for him to admit…
but he did.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter 11] The court heard that he was a regular visitor to pornographic sites
with names including Young Teen Girls and My Little Nieces.
When we initially had gone to search Rolf Harris' home address,
We seized copies of his diaries, and they were all reviewed.
One of the dates in particular in the diary
showed that he was taking part in the Queen's Jubilee celebrations…
[audience cheering]
…and on the day he was doing that,
he was also looking at indecent images of children on the computer.
In his defence, Rolf Harris said that the housekeeper had seen his grandson
in his study looking at possibly pornography on the computer,
and that may be an excuse
as to why there was these indecent images on the computer at that time.
He tried to blame his own grandson for these offences, yeah.
It just kind of goes to show the lengths of how far he was prepared to go,
and also how far his legal team were prepared to go
to distance himself from those images.
[dramatic music playing]
[soft music playing]
I was recently turned 15 when he assaulted me.
I was on the stand for two days giving evidence.
It took a lot out of me.
My whole life was, don't let anybody know.
It took 27 years for me to come forward to anybody about it.
I knew that that was the first and only time
that people are going to hear in a courtroom where it matters
what he did, and he can be held to account.
That's the only place it matters.
There was no stopping me.
Rolf Harris' defence was that those that had spoken out against him
were just gold diggers, that they were looking for compensation,
that actually there was no substance to anything
that they had to say, and anything that had happened was just misconstrued.
[Suzi] Rolf Harris' barrister called me a liar…
and I turned round to get off the stand and I stared at Rolf Harris.
I was so pissed off at being called a liar.
He literally turned himself round on his swivel chair
and looked completely opposite. He refused to make eye contact with me,
and I stared at him the entire way out of there.
[reporter 12] An Australian witness told the court
before the entertainer assaulted her,
he said, "I want to be the first one to introduce you to a tongue kiss".
The barrister asked me, "Well, what was so bad about that"?
[sombre music playing]
And then, explain what your jammies were, he said.
Did I have something on that was provocative?
And I looked at the jury and then I looked back at him
and I said to him, "I was a child…
I was a child".
[Sasha] In almost all cases
where somebody alleges that they have been sexually abused,
they are either accused of lying
or being the instigator of the sexual abuse.
In this case, it was put to Victim A that she was very much the one
who wanted to have an affair with Rolf Harris when she was over 18.
[Chip] When I first encountered Victim A…
she always wanted to preserve her anonymity.
She wanted me to be her spokesperson and I was quite happy to take on that role
because I felt that she needed help.
What he said in court about it being consensual…
about it only starting when she was 18…
that she knew to be absolutely not the case.
It had been going on for years before that,
four or five years of inappropriate behaviour before she was 18.
Any idea that she was wanting this behaviour to happen
as I know it and I know her,
it was so far removed from reality and the facts.
[Sasha] What was quite interesting evidence was that Rolf Harris
wrote a very lengthy letter to Victim A's father.
And when I saw that letter written in his own handwriting,
I knew that that would form an important part
- of the cross-examination of him. - [suspenseful music playing]
[Chip] It's the first time I've actually seen this letter…
that Rolf sent to the father.
"I fondly imagine that everything that had taken place had progressed
from a feeling of love and friendship".
"There was no rape, no physical forcing, brutality or beating that took place".
That's a really…
twisted way of looking at it.
No, there wasn't any physical forcing,
but what you've done is you have taken that feeling of love and friendship
and twisted it and used it to your advantage.
I said, "Why do you just never…" Oh, God, that is…
"Why did you never say no"?
I think it's fucking outrageous. I think it's absolutely disgusting.
I think any abuser who says to somebody, their victim, why didn't you stop me?
It's outrageous. I'm really upset reading this.
It makes me really angry.
[Sasha] Then he says this, "When I see the misery I have caused Victim A,
I'm sickened by myself".
"You can't go back and change things that you've done in this life".
"I wish to God I could".
This doesn't fit in at all with Mr Harris's account,
that this was a consensual sexual relationship instigated,
he says, by Victim A.
Why on earth would it have caused her misery?
And when he gave evidence, he really had no credible explanation
as to why he'd written a letter like that,
if nothing horrible had happened to Victim A.
[sombre music playing]
Rolf Harris would arrive every single day with his wife, with his daughter Bindi.
[Rolf] I'm so lucky to have found someone like her.
I've often wondered how she'd put up with me for all these years.
I've never been a perfect husband.
- [camera shutters clicking] - [Sasha] They would walk extremely slowly,
all linking arms so that the cameras could focus on him and his family
for a good five or six minutes.
[reporter 13] Rolf, what does it mean to have the family supporting you, Rolf?
[Sasha] And I asked Rolf Harris about this when I cross-examined him
as to how it came about that the three of them were there every day.
And Rolf Harris said, "Well, they didn't come together".
He just arrived with Alwen, his wife,
and they met up with Bindi in a cafe around the corner.
And when they were all assembled, they would put on this performance
- in order to walk slowly into court. - [dramatic music playing]
And I asked him why he did that.
And he said that's what his PR people had advised him to do.
I mean, it was so stupid.
It was ridiculous.
[Ben] I think it speaks volumes.
He was the main breadwinner for his daughter, Bindi Harris.
I think she had to do everything she thought was possible
to protect her father, protect his credibility.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Ben] Rolf chose to give evidence in his trial,
which is obviously a matter for his defence team whether he did that.
And it became the complete and utter disaster for him.
So after Victim A turned 18,
the relationship, if you want to call it that, continued.
He revealed…
details, particularly in relation to Victim A…
that as the investigative team, we didn't know about.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Ben] He talked about meeting Victim A and that he had taken her
to a towpath that runs along the river at the back of the house…
and that he had got Victim A to perform oral sex on him on that towpath.
His defence team, his barrister, said to him,
"Oh, I imagine this is a place that's quite well covered
and secluded and secrete".
"No, no, no, it was all quite open. People could see".
Another incident he talked about was
while staying at Bindi's house, he had been sat on a sofa
and sat to the left side of him was Bindi Harris, his daughter…
and sat to the right side of him was Victim A,
who had come to visit Bindi.
Because it was cold, they had a blanket across their laps.
He had got Victim A to masturbate him whilst his daughter was sat next to him.
And you're sat there in a court setting, listening to this story, thinking…
what are you saying?
The jury were absolutely horrified by this story.
I think he believed by saying these things,
he was almost justifying, exonerating himself.
What, you know, this legitimate relationship.
That story that he told was a turning point for the jury.
[suspenseful music playing]
[reporter 14] The jury in the Rolf Harris sexual abuse trial in London
has retired to consider its verdict.
[reporter 15] The judge told the jury to put aside any ideas
of typical victim or offender behaviour, saying there was no classic response.
[reporter 16] The prosecution has branded him a sinister pervert
with a Jekyll and Hyde side to his character.
[indistinct chatter]
[Ben] The days leading up to the verdict were difficult.
Have our victims been believed?
Have we gathered and presented our evidence in the right way?
If we lose, the effects of that…
on a personal level for me, are quite catastrophic.
From a professional level, from the Metropolitan Police…
it's catastrophic.
And for the victims, it's catastrophic.
All this time, effort, and most importantly, publicity…
- will be for nothing. - [dramatic music playing]
[Gary] It just felt that there was a huge,
huge amount hanging on that jury, that decision.
[reporter 17] This was to be the day of reckoning for Rolf Harris.
[Ben] The jury came in, and I remember being sat next to Gary,
and I remember saying to him, "Two of the female jurors are crying".
They were in floods of tears.
And trying to work out…
is it a bad sign for us?
What are they thinking?
[reporter 17] After an eight-week trial, the jury had made up its mind.
In the mid-afternoon, it delivered its unanimous verdicts.
- Guilty on all 12 counts. - [indistinct chatter]
[Sasha] The judge went on.
You took advantage of the trust placed in you because of your celebrity status
to commit the offences against your victims.
In every case, the age gap between you and your victim
was a very considerable one.
You clearly got a thrill from committing the offences
whilst others were present or nearby.
You have shown no remorse for your crimes at all.
Your reputation now lies in ruins, but you have no-one to blame but yourself.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter 18] The veteran Australian entertainer, Rolf Harris,
has been sentenced to five years and nine months jail by a judge in London.
[reporter 19] He left in a prison van, his spectacular fall from grace complete.
Rolf Harris was Operation Yewtrees' biggest success.
- [door closes] - [birds chirping]
[soft music playing]
[Tonya] When the verdict came in,
Gary called me and said "He was found guilty".
I was so happy and so relieved and so grateful.
After all those decades…
Yeah, you can't get those decades back,
but sort of explained maybe why my life didn't go the way people expected it to.
[Chris] I was Rolf's didge player. I was his driver, security sometimes.
Rolf, Alwen, myself and Bindi, we would get together,
you know, sometimes four or five times a week, sometimes twice a week…
and I hadn't had anything to do with Rolf after his sentencing for quite some time.
[suspenseful music playing]
Yeah, the letter.
Rolf wrote me this from jail.
It's aimed at his accusers, his victims…
who some of were children at the time of his offences towards them.
His words, "Climb up out of the woodwork, babe, from 40 years ago".
"Time's right to grab your chance".
"Clap eyes on a rich celebrity and make the bastard dance".
The letter made me feel sick at the time, and reading it now,
I feel the same fucking way.
He really felt that he was the victim.
He really did.
And all of these accusers are liars, all of them.
[sombre music playing]
[Paul] After that awful, awful poem appeared in the paper…
Wendy told me she wanted to write one back to him in return.
She wrote, "Mr. Harris, you chose me, remember, 40 years ago".
- "You put your dirty hand on me… - [Wendy] "…hands on me".
"And have not let me go".
"Now you are complaining. I can almost hear the wail
whining you are innocent from your cushy jail".
The letter.
[Wendy] "All this has taken its toll, and it's me who has to swerve".
Yeah, she probably felt, "Oh, he thinks he's had the last say".
I ain't gonna let that happen.
I was a child. I was seven.
A little girl, innocent. [sobs]
And I think she just went and grabbed the power back from him again.
You know?
- [sombre music playing] - Not seen this for a while.
Yeah.
[director] Why do you think he did it?
Well…
[sombre music playing]
I think it's a difficult question to say why did he do it.
You know, you're trying to get into the psyche of someone…
who…
is sexually attracted to children.
And he was put into a position where his reputation was his protection.
Kids are all from the Bankstown and Newtown Police Boys Clubs there.
How come there's so many girls in a police boys club?
It was never like that when I was a kid.
- Lucky devils. - [children laughing]
And you look nice with the lipstick on your teeth.
One of the features of Rolf Harris's predatory behaviour
was that he would commit sexual offences against children in a very public place.
It was almost as if the risk was part of the thrill.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter 20] I'd like to return to the Rolf Harris case.
And there is a move to extinguish all evidence of him
and his art in the public domain.
The memory of his evil is behind the red paint.
[reporter 21] I would be urging the council
to remove the plaques and take down the paintings
that we currently have hanging in the council chambers.
[reporter 22] On eBay, there's an exodus of Rolf Harris's work.
[Callum] Rolf Harris's artwork, as I understand it,
is now worth close to nothing.
[reporter 23] The British Academy of Film and Television Arts
has taken back its fellowship.
[Nick] He's still got such validation from crowds, from adulation.
He desperately wanted to be admired.
His diminished reputation cut him off from almost everything he valued.
[reporter 24] Rolf Harris was stripped of an honour granted by the Queen
after he painted her 80th birthday portrait.
Well, here we are.
Australian victims did not get a trial.
No, they've essentially got nothing.
There's been no charges laid. There's been no consequences.
It does feel like a failure of the Australian justice system.
[sombre music playing]
[Suzi] Australia has very strict defamation laws.
In Australia, if they're a really rich, famous actor,
good luck, because it's up to you to prove that you were assaulted.
And for me, the defamation laws in our country stop victims,
survivors like me, that don't have money,
coming forward against the big, rich entertainers like your Rolf Harris'.
- [indistinct chatter] - [sombre music playing]
[rain pattering]
Rolf Harris received five years and nine months,
but Harris came out after about three years.
But that's nothing.
I thought a sexual offender's act should be a bit longer.
No wonder people just, like, don't say anything and just live with it.
What message did it send to all of you?
It's almost like you're rewarding the perpetrator,
and, like, what sort of message is that really sending to,
like, other victims who maybe haven't come forward yet,
you know, to the victim themselves,
who's going to live with this trauma for their whole life?
It's just, like, the opposite of what a justice system is supposed to be,
because it's not just.
Just, in my view, I'm, like, incredibly angry to hear that.
It makes me look at that and just think,
there is history of protecting the powerful men.
But why would I go forward?
There is the need to be heard.
The victims cannot move on.
They cannot get to that point without some acknowledgement.
And so I can only say that in this particular case…
there was profound change…
in the life course of those who came forward.
So was it worth it? Did they get justice?
- [sombre music playing] - [indistinct chatter]
[train horn blaring]
[soft music playing]
[Chris] Yeah, it's haunting being back here.
That's the house right there.
The house that Rolf lived in.
So after he came out of jail, this is where he came,
- and in its own right, it became a jail. - [sombre music playing]
[Chris] I know that mentally he had spiralled.
His depression and his fall from grace was so big
that he was very rarely seen out in public anymore.
- [camera shutter clicking] - [Chris] He lived here as a recluse.
It became a gilded cage, somewhere where he was
free to walk around the grounds of the house,
but almost like being on house arrest himself.
And he lived out the rest of his days here.
[sombre music playing]
[reporter 25] Breaking news overnight.
Convicted paedophile and disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris
has been confirmed as dead at the age of 93.
He died never publicly apologising to his victims.
[Suzi] It took a long time for Rolf Harris and men like him in the UK
to be brought to justice because women were not listened to
and because we were not believed.
Actually being believed and coming forward and having it pursued
made me much more powerful, and that power comes from being heard.
- [sombre music playing] - [Nick] The Rolf Harris case
was important because it broke a bit of ground.
That kind of mental process of saying, if I believe this victim, what then?
Which became such a stronger theme during #MeToo.
It was part of a wave.
At the very least it was evidence that things were changing.
[crowd chanting]
We will never know the full scale of his abuse.
I shudder to think of how many people's lives he actually destroyed.
Back then people were allowed to get away with things
that they're not allowed to get away with today.
But stories are coming forward more and more.
And it's not just a handful of us.
That's the astonishing thing about it.
This is more powerful than just my story.
It's a lot of people's stories.
[sombre music playing]