- By Michael Sheils McNamee
- BBC news
Disgraced former entertainer Rolf Harris, who was jailed for a series of indecent attacks on girls, has died aged 93.
Harris was found guilty of a series of indecent assaults between 1968 and 1986 following a 2014 trial – and was jailed for five years and nine months.
He was released from prison in 2017 – but never apologized to his victims.
Before his crimes came to light, Harris was a fixture in home entertainments in the UK and Australia.
According to the death certificate registered on Tuesday, he died of neck cancer and “old age and frailty” at his home in Bray, Berkshire, on May 10.
A statement released by his family said: “This is to confirm that Rolf Harris has passed away peacefully surrounded by family and friends and is now resting in peace.
“They ask that you respect their privacy. No further comment will be made.”
Following his trial at Southwark Crown Court, Harris was initially found guilty of 12 assaults on four girls, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s.
A conviction, regarding his accusations of indecently assaulting an eight-year-old girl, was later overturned. But the Court of Appeal judges rejected his application to challenge 11 other convictions.
The victims included two teenage girls and a friend of his daughter.
Queen portrait
Before his crimes came to light, Harris had been a well-known figure in the entertainment industry in Britain and his native Australia for more than 50 years.
He arrived in London in 1952, at the age of 21, and continued to host children’s television and variety shows as well as animal and art series. Harris painted a portrait of the late Queen to mark her 80th birthday in 2006.
Harris is also known for several hit songs, including Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport; Two Little Boys and Led Zeppelin’s cover of Stairway to Heaven.
“You have shown no remorse for your crimes,” the judge told him. “Your reputation is now ruined, but you have no one to blame but yourself.”
Harris served a three-year sentence at Stafford Prison in Staffordshire. After his release, he returned to the home in Bray, Berkshire, which he shares with his wife, Alwen, whom he married in 1958.
The couple has a daughter, Bindi.
