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Rolf Harris trial: 'The way he tickled you was cringey … creepy' Rolf Harris trial: 'The way he tickled you was cringey … creepy'
(about 11 hours later)
Rolf Harris repeatedly carried out sexual assaults on the young daughter of family friends, acting without warning and then pretending nothing had happened, the alleged victim has said in court. Rolf Harris carried out a series of indecent assaults against a young girl who was friends with his daughter, repeatedly groping her without warning and leaving the alleged victim feeling disgusting, dependent on alcohol and prone to panic attacks, a court has heard .
The woman said that even before the first alleged assault, when she was 13, she already found Harris "creepy" and "cringey" for his habit of giving her bear hugs and tickling her body. On one occasion, she said, Harris assaulted her while a family member was oblivious in the same room. "I think he got a thrill out of it," she said. Giving evidence at the trial of the 84-year-old Australian-born entertainer and artist, the woman said she was first touched by Harris on a holiday when she was 13 but was too terrified of him to tell anyone. On one later occasion, she said, Harris assaulted her as his daughter, Bindi, slept in an adjoining bed. Years later, the woman said, she had told Harris's daughter what had happened after Bindi asked her: "Has he touched you?"
Giving evidence from behind a screen, the woman, now in her late 40s, said the alleged attacks had had a significant effect on her life, and that she had started drinking to cope with the anxiety. As a teenager she felt the assaults were "all my fault", she told Southwark crown court. The alleged victim, who is now in her late 40s and cannot be named for legal reasons, said Harris never talked to her before or after the assaults. "I was scared of him," she told Southwark crown court. "It made me feel disgusting."
Asked by the prosecutor, Sasha Wass QC, why that was the case, the woman replied: "Because I didn't stop him. I should have shouted and screamed." Answering questions from Sasha Wass QC, prosecuting, the woman said she had previously found Harris "creepy" and "cringey" because of his habit of greeting her with bear hugs and intrusive tickles.
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said the first alleged attack took place when she was 13 and on holiday. She had taken a shower in her hotel room and emerged with just a towel around her, assuming the room was empty, but she saw the Australian-born entertainer and artist standing there. Giving evidence from behind a screen, the woman said that by the time she was 14 the assaults had prompted her to buy gin with her pocket money to cope with anxiety and panic. She felt the incidents were "all my fault".
"He just came up to me and gave me one of his big hugs and tickles," she said. He then immediately reached under the towel and sexually assaulted her, she continued, while muttering something like "You're lovely." The woman said she felt panicked. "I just thought 'oh my God, what's happening,'" she said. "He pretended nothing had happened and said 'I'll see you downstairs.'" Asked by Wass why this was the case, the woman replied: "Because I didn't stop him. I should have shouted and screamed."
The woman said Harris would regularly hug and tickle her, and that she did not enjoy it, calling it "pretty creepy". The court heard that the first alleged attack took place when the woman was 13 and on holiday. She had taken a shower in her hotel room and emerged with just a towel around her to find Harris standing in front of her.
"The way he hugged you and tickled you all over was cringey. I never liked it. Rolf would fold himself around you. He was a big man. He would fold you in his arms and tickle you up and down your body." "He just came up to me and gave me one of his big hugs and tickles," she said. She told the court that Harris then reached under the towel and sexually assaulted her, muttering, "Mmmm, you're lovely", and leaving her confused and panicked. "I just thought: 'Oh my God, what's happening?' He pretended nothing had happened, and said: 'I'll see you downstairs.'"
The woman said Harris assaulted her in a similar way two days later when he wrapped a towel around her as she emerged from the sea with family members close by. The woman said Harris had long appeared "pretty creepy" to her: "The way he hugged you and tickled you all over was cringey. I never liked it. Rolf would fold himself around you. He was a big man. He would fold you in his arms and tickle you up and down your body."
Asked by Wass why she did not shout out, the woman replied: "I was a very shy child, excruciatingly shy really, and I didn't have the guts to shout out. I thought that if I shouted out it will cause mayhem." She described subsequent assaults by Harris, beginning on the holiday and continuing for many years. Throughout, she said, Harris would touch her without warning and then act as if nothing had happened.
On another occasion, she said, Harris took a photograph of her in bed. She said: "I was asleep in bed. I awoke to a click of a camera." On one occasion, she said, Harris took a photograph of her in bed, aged 13.
The woman said the assaults continued on the holiday and then back in the UK when Harris visited her family home. To cope with the anxiety these visits caused, she said, she used pocket money to buy small bottles of gin that she would drink in her bedroom, brushing her teeth to mask the smell from her parents. Two years later, when she was staying at the Harris family home, Harris assaulted her one morning as Bindi was sleeping in the adjoining bed, she told the court, adding: "I think he got a thrill out of it."
She described an occasion when she was 15, when Harris allegedly put his hand into her jeans after coming to her bedroom, and on another occasion "cornering" her in the TV room and assaulting her in a similar way. Each time, she said, Harris said nothing except sometimes murmuring her name, and afterwards he went downstairs immediately and started laughing and joking with her family as if nothing had happened. The sexual contact continued until she was 29, the woman said, and she felt unable to stop it. "All I can say was I just felt scared of him. I just went along with it, and drank to black it out." It was not until she was in her early 30s that she told her parents, when they confronted her about her drinking. "I just blurted out: 'It's that bloody Rolf Harris.' I just told them that he'd been touching me and stuff."
Was there ever any question of the alleged victim enjoying the experiences, Wass asked. Soon afterwards she visited Bindi Harris, the court heard: "She said: 'Why have you got a downer on my dad?' And I didn't say anything and she just blurted out, she said: 'Has he touched you?'"
"No, not in the slightest," the woman replied. The woman said she told Bindi about the alleged abuse. "She was pretty devastated but she wasn't cross at me at all. She was really angry with her father and obviously very upset by it."
She also described alleged assaults when she was staying at Harris's family home in Bray, Berkshire, including one when he brought her a cup of tea in the morning, and another which took place when a family member was in the same room. On another occasion, she said, he began to fondle his penis in front of her, which she described as "small, very, very small". The woman stopped drinking in 2000 but still receives treatment for anxiety and panic attacks. She eventually went to the police after seeing Harris take a starring role at the Queen's diamond jubilee concert in 2012. She said: "It was like he'd invaded my home every time I switched the telly on. You flick over and there's his mug. That's when I decided I wasn't going to have any more of it."
Harris, 84, wearing a dark grey suit, pink shirt and multicoloured tie, sat in the glassed-in dock and listened impassively to proceedings with a hearing loop headset. He denies 12 counts of indecent assault covering 25 years from the late 1960s. His wife, Alwen, sat in the public gallery with other relatives and supporters. Asked by Wass why she had not gone to the police earlier, the woman answered: "He was this big man off the telly. I knew no one would believe me. He's a huge character and I thought I didn't stand a chance."
On Friday, Wass opened the prosecution case by telling the jury that Harris groomed the alleged victim, whose claims cover seven of the 12 counts, "like a pet". Harris sat in the glassed-in dock, listening impassively to proceedings through a hearing loop headset. He denies 12 counts of indecent assault over 25 years from the late 1960s, seven of them connected to the witness giving evidence on Monday. His wife, Alwen, sat in the public seats among other relatives and supporters.
She said of Harris: "He never treated her as an equal or a human being. He never had a meaningful conversation with her. She felt she was just his little toy." The trial continues.
When the alleged victim finally told her family in the 1990s, her father wrote to Harris, and the entertainer replied saying he was in "a state of abject self-loathing".
The jury read Harris's letter to the girl's father, in which he admitted a sexual relationship while insisting it began when the girl was of legal age, and begged for forgiveness.
"When I see the misery I have caused I am sickened by myself. You can't go back and change things that you have done in this life. I wish to God I could," Harris wrote.