83-year old Australian entertainer Rolf Harris will plead not guilty to nine counts of indecent assault on victims aged 14-15 and four counts of creating indecent images of children, his lawyer said on Monday.
Harris, a musician, artist, and television personality in the UK, was accused back in March along with veteran entertainer Jimmy Savile–now deceased–of sexually abusing young girls throughout the ’80s; however, the indecent images reportedly were made just last year. Harris was arrested as part of Operation Yewtree, which aims to investigate claims made by alleged victims of sexual abuse. Harris is not thought to be connected to Savile, however.
Harris did not enter a plea today but is expected back in court in October. Until then, he is forbidden to have any unsupervised contact with a child. If convicted, he faces up to ten years in prison.
Harris is highly regarded in the U.K. as an entertainer and artist and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia last year for the Queen. He also painted the official portrait of the Queen in 2005. One of his greatest claims to fame is composer of the song “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport”.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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