The “hiding in plain sight” technique has proved appallingly effective for a list of notorious sex offenders. When in doubt, get yourself a prominent slot on the BBC and hang out with royalty, and you can get away with almost anything.
The newsreader Huw Edwards is the latest in this roll-call of infamy, though he has vowed to challenge “misleading or fabricated claims” made about him, but Edwards seems like a mere amateur when compared with Rolf Harris. As we learn in this Australian-made two-part documentary, Harris hailed from the Perth suburb of Bassingdean, came to London in 1952, studied art at the City and Guilds college, and by 1954 he was a regular on the BBC TV show Whirligig, for which he created his drawing-board character Willoughby.
He was adopted as the nation’s best-loved Australian, and his future hit shows for the Beeb included Rolf’s Cartoon Time, Rolf on Art and Animal Hospital. He clearly had a prodigious artistic gift which enabled him to create instant paintings in the style of famous artists, be it Klimt, Picasso or Andy Warhol. He had a knack for creating hit pop records too, notably "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport", "Jake the Peg", "Two Little Boys" (a UK Number One) and "Sun Arise", a kind of harbinger of “World Music”. He even recorded a version of "Tie Me Kangaroo Down" with the Beatles.
Harris’s greatest hit was being invited to paint a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, who sat for him twice at Buckingham Palace in 2005 (pictured above, Rolf goes painting). In film of the event here, she seems to be regarding Harris with a benign beneficence. Presumably he was able to curb any urge to subject the monarch to his obscene fumblings.
Her Majesty could count herself lucky, since Harris had long been an inveterate and prolific sexual predator, who it seems could barely meet a young female without trying to cuddle her, kiss her and give her a grope. Ironic, considering that in 1985 he presented a film called Kids Can Say No, warning of the dangers of child abuse.
He was jailed in 2014 after being found guilty on 12 counts of indecent assault. Several of his victims appear here, some of them speaking of the experiences for the first time, and it’s distressing to see how badly it still affects them many decades later. A woman called Pamela remembers how Rolf showed her his paintings and then proceeded to assault her. She was terrified he was going to rape her, and he only stopped, she reckoned, when he discovered she had her period. Another victim described how, in Australia in 1984 when she was 14, Harris groped her. She reported it to the police, who weren’t interested in pursuing the case.
Tonya, who visited London with a theatre group when she was 15, was invited to sit on Rolf’s lap. He stuck his fingers inside her and then casually walked away. Sunny remembered how, aged 15, she made an advert for British Paints with Harris, who promptly assaulted her.
One of the worst aspects of the story is that’s clear many people knew about Harris’s proclivities, but turned a blind eye. Australian author Kathy Lette describes how he’d long had a reputation for being “handsy”. Suzi, a makeup artist at Sydney’s Channel 7 TV, describes how Harris put his hands up her shorts while groups of men in the studio watched and did nothing. Elsewhere, female employees were advised not to get in a lift with Harris.
It seems as if his reign of predatory terror might have carried on indefinitely had the hideous Jimmy Savile (pictured above) not finally been unmasked. Savile’s arrest prompted the Met to set up Operation Yewtree to investigate historic allegations of child abuse, and it eventually proved to be Harris’s undoing. You’d hope we’ll never see his like again, but we will.
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