The Brits seem to miss him
scrolling through that comment section lol
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12114779/Rolf-Harris-dead-93-Paedophile-TV-host-musician-killed-neck-cancer.html#comments
He's part of my age-groups childhood. It's quite hard to switch off, despite his conviction.
Whilst I'm no paedophile apologist...I have read up on his initial charge (which stems from Rolf temporarily living with an 14-15 year old girl...alongside her parents, who gave him and the situation their blessing) It appears that the whole arrangement turned sour...resulting in Rolf sending he parents a hand-written apology letter (to which the parents then took to the authorities)
I find it odd that the parents have not been investigated for letting the whole sorry affair happen right under their noses (and seemingly with their patronage?)
A lot of the other(expected) allegations/charges (hot on the public outcry against Savile, etc) were dismissed in court...but the mud had stuck and the public demanded blood.
Unfortunately, a lot of the facts surrounding Rolf have since been buried under an endless sea of sensationalist headlines and righteous indignation.
It's a crying shame (for all concerned)
Rolf living temporarily living with an 14-15 year old girl
GUILTY.
NO OTHER WORDS YOU ADD TO THE HEADLINE CAN ALTER THE CORE ISSUE.
"In 2014, Harris was jailed for five years and nine months following his conviction for historic sexual abuse against four girls dating back to the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s."
I don't think his crimes are anything near as abhorrent as Savile's. As far as I'm aware, Harris didn't rape anyone, but he was still convicted for molesting underage girls, and that's a line that once you cross, your name is, quite reasonably, mud.
By all means, make a distinction between him and *even worse* sex offenders, but there's no defence/apology for Harris. His actions will have destroyed young lives.
Upon further inspection, the girl in question he lived with was actually 17 (and apparently she was the daughter of a friend?)
Not making any excuses for him at all...But I think there's a lot more (or likely less) to his case?
As for claims of 'Historic Sexual Abuse' the lower end of that scale can constitute merely putting one's arm around someone else (just ask Dave Lee Travis and the hell he went through to clear his name)
Was DLT ever cleared? I thought he was still cancelled. I'd love you to be right, but that's not what I had heard/read.
shareAfter a bit of research:
In October 2013, Travis was charged with 14 allegations of indecent assault and one of sexual assault between 1976 and 2008, relating to 11 female complainants aged between 15 and 29 at the time of the alleged offences. In February 2014, Dave Lee Travis was found not guilty on 12 of 14 allegations, and the jury failed to reach a verdict on the remaining two counts. Travis would face another charge of indecent assault as well as the retrial on the two outstanding counts (in September 2014) which (after being cleared of 2 charges) was found guilty by a majority verdict of 10β2 of indecently assaulting a female researcher (working on The Mrs Merton Show in 1995) resulting in a suspended sentence (three months in prison, suspended for two years)