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Rolf Harris sex trial: Alleged victim 'flirted' with entertainer, court told Rolf Harris sex trial: Alleged victim had ‘great day’ while on holiday with the entertainer and his family, her diary says
(about 5 hours later)
One of Rolf Harris’ alleged victims flirted with him because she was jealous that his daughter had become closer to another friend, a court has heard. The teenage diary of a woman who claims she suffered years of abuse by Rolf Harris describes a “great” day spent with the entertainer and his family during a holiday to Hawaii in which she claims he sexually assaulted her for the first time, a court has heard.
The jury at Southwark Crown Court was told that “sexual chemistry“ developed between the woman and the veteran entertainer, leading to consensual sexual encounters. The childhood friend of the cartoonist’s daughter Bindi admitted under cross-examination at Southwark Crown Court that she had a happy beach holiday in the 1970s when she was 13, and was accused of inventing the alleged attacks. The woman, now in her 40s, claims Mr Harris touched her intimately when she stepped out of a shower and she was assaulted again on the beach while Mr Harris’s wife and daughter were only a few feet away.
The woman, who was a friend of Harris's daughter Bindi, claims the star abused her from the age of 13, when he first assaulted her on a holiday in Hawaii, and there were sexual encounters between the pair until she was 28. The Australian entertainer and artist is accused of indecently assaulting four girls, aged between seven or eight and 19, from 1968 to 1986.
Seven of his 12 charges of indecent assault relate to her. The alleged victim giving evidence is named on seven of the 12 counts of indecent assault, all of which Mr Harris denies.
Sonia Woodley QC, cross-examining the woman for Harris’ defence on Tuesday, said the girl became jealous after she and Bindi drifted apart when the family moved away. Her entry for the first full day in Hawaii said: “Today was great because we went on the beach and went swimming.”
Ms Woodley said on one occasion the woman, now in her 40s, actively flirted with Harris. Sonia Woodley QC, defending, asked the woman: “No mention in the diary or any hint of anything which had happened to you at the hands of Rolf Harris, is there?”
She said: ”I suggest that because you were jealous over [the friend], you flirted with Rolf Harris. You grabbed his elbow, guiding him to sit on the bed.“ She replied: “I wouldn’t have put it in the diary… It was great up until the point where he got the towel out, put it round me and fondled me. I wouldn’t have put that in the diary. I would have made it sound better in the diary. If anyone saw my diary I wouldn’t want them to think I had an awful time.”
The alleged victim denied that there was chemistry between them when the she stayed at Harris' Berkshire home for a second time. When asked if it was “a happy holiday” for her, the alleged victim replied: “Basically, yes it was.” She said that Bindi and Mr Harris’s wife, Alwen Hughes, would not have noticed she was upset because she “didn’t show it”.
It was also claimed that the woman initiated "foreplay" with Harris, 84, before she performed a sex act on him during a drive to London from Bray when she was 22. The alleged assaults abroad happened before such offences abroad could be prosecuted in the UK, so are not among the charges against Mr Harris.
Ms Woodley suggested that because she had initiated the foreplay, he pulled over and a sex act took place. However, the woman said that after the holiday in Hawaii Mr Harris continued to abuse her for a number of years, which drove her to alcoholism. She was asked about an alleged assault during a visit to the Harris family at their home in Bray, Berkshire, when she was 18. She claimed Mr Harris performed a sex act on her after bringing her a cup of tea in the morning.
The woman told the jury that she did not consent to it. However, Ms Woodley claimed “sexual chemistry” had developed between the pair and that the witness went on to have a consensual sexual relationship with the entertainer when she was an adult.
Earlier, the court was told the woman's diary of the holiday when she claims the abuse started showed "no hint of unhappiness", with her saying she had a "great" day with the television star and his family. Describing an alleged incident at the woman’s home when she was 28 or 29, the woman told the court she had only invited Mr Harris there because she wanted to talk to him about Bindi. Ms Woodley asked the woman why she did not tell Mr Harris “mind your own business” when he asked where her bedroom was. The witness replied: “I was drunk at the time. I was frightened. I never said no to him.”
The alleged victim was taken through diary entries from the trip to Hawaii in 1978, where she spent two days. The case continues.
Ms Woodley asked her: "No mention in the diary or any hint of anything which had happened to you at the hands of Rolf Harris, is there?"
The woman replied: "I wouldn't have put it in the diary."
When asked whether it was a happy holiday, she replied: "Basically, yes it was."
Harris, wearing a light grey suit with a white shirt and dark tie, listened to her evidence with the aid of a hearing loop, at times reading court documents.
On Monday the alleged victim told the court that she started drinking in her early teens, and would drink gin to help control panic attacks and anxiety about seeing Harris.
Ms Woodley also asked the woman about whether she had visited the Harris home in Bray before or after she was 16.
The barrister said: "It's quite possible that you didn't go there until after you were 16?"
"Quite possible," the woman replied.
The jury of six men and six women heard that Harris' daughter Bindi did not wake up as he allegedly performed oral sex on the woman as she slept in the same room.
Ms Woodley said: "During all that time there's Bindi feet away from you, she didn't hear anything according to you? She didn't appear to react in any way?"
She replied: "She didn't react, no," saying that she cried "not during it, afterwards. They were silent tears".
Harris denies all charges. The trial continues.
Additional reporting by PA