Rolf Harris’ staggering fortune revealed
The value of Australian entertainer and convicted paedophile Rolf Harris has been revealed in new documents, but in a sad twist, none of his victims will be able to make claims for it.
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Rolf Harris died disgraced and without the fortune the Australian entertainer had amassed over the years, official documents reveal.
The convicted paedophile lived out his final years as a recluse after he was released from jail for child sex crimes. Harris died after battling neck cancer in May 2023 aged 93.
Many believed the once jocular Aussie had left behind a fortune of close to £16m ($A31m) that would be passed down to his wife Alwen and daughter Bindi, 60.
But, according to The Sun, probate documents show the worth of the assets Harris left behind were closer to just £438,802 ($A853,000).
When expenses were taken out, the net value of his estate was £0.
Best known for hits including Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport and Jake The Peg, as well as a string of children’s TV hits, Harris was jailed in 2014 for five years and nine months for 12 indecent assaults on four underage girls between 1968 and 1986.
He denied all the accusations but was convicted after a high-profile trial of a dozen historical indecent assaults against four girls and four charges of producing indecent child images. It wrecked his career and ruined his reputation.
During his sentencing, the judge said Harris had taken advantage of his celebrity status and shown no remorse.
Known globally as an entertainer, musician and painter, Harris became a TV favourite in England where he lived until his death on May 10, 2023.
Harris painted the 80th birthday portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II. The painting was commissioned by the BBC which aired a television special about its creation, The Queen, by Rolf, in 2006.
But adding to his disgrace, it is now believed the majority of the Harris fortune was spent before his death to make any compensation claims by his victims virtually impossible.
Harris’ fate was sealed when British authorities launched a probe into historic sex abuse.
The investigation caught other well-known British figures in its net including former BBC broadcaster and It’s a Knockout presenter Stuart Hall and television weatherman Fred Talbot who were also jailed for historic child sex offences.
Aussie Harris – a staple of children’s TV in the 1980s – was released from prison in 2017 part-way through a retrial on four accusations of indecent assault.
In November 2017, he appeared at the Court of Appeal in London to try to overturn his convictions but succeeded on only one, with the other 11 convictions sticking.
Before succumbing to neck cancer, Harris lived his final years as a recluse at his luxury home on the River Thames in an up-market village in Berkshire county in England’s southeast.
According to The Sun. much of the Harris fortune was spent on around-the-clock carers who nursed him during his illness and also for his wife Alwen, who died in September this year after suffering from dementia.
His legal documents show that his last will was signed in March 2022, just a year before his death, and was witnessed by two of his carers.
Investigator and ex-detective Mark Williams-Thomas – who helped to convict Harris – told the Sun: “This is yet another disgrace.
“He has obviously planned to get rid of money and assets and there is no way he’d have actually been penniless.
“He had amassed a huge amount of wealth and I would assume he has squirrelled it away to avoid victims making claims on it, even after his death.
“The man had no shame.”
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