Entertainer and convicted sex offender Rolf Harris dead at 93

Convicted paedophile Rolf Harris spent his final years in disgrace, but still lived the opulent lifestyle he was accustomed to after decades in showbiz.

Convicted paedophile Rolf Harris spent his final years in disgrace but still lived the opulent lifestyle he had become accustomed to after decades in show business.

Estimates vary but the disgraced entertainer is believed to have accumulated a fortune that could have been as high as $28 million at the time of his death.

This includes the predator’s $9.5-million riverside mansion in the scenic village of Bray, in England’s Berkshire.

Rolf Harris, performing at the Sydney Opera House, amassed a huge fortune over decades.

The mansion has views of the Thames and is just a 10-minute drive from Windsor Castle, where the pre-downfall Harris unveiled his portrait of the late Queen in 2012.

The sprawling waterside property, which inside was covered in extravagant artworks, was said to be modelled on Harris’ childhood house on the banks of the Swan River in Perth.

In 2017, The Sun reported that Harris had even managed to pocket a $1.8 million payout while he was in prison for sexual assaults after the break-up of his business empire, Rolf Harris Enterprises.

Rolf Harris shows off his Union Jack shirt on stage during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace in 2012. Picture: AFP

It was reported that Harris would share the proceeds with his wife Alwen, who jointly owned the business.

Before he was exposed as a paedophile, Harris’ original paintings regularly fetched up to $60,000.

Some of Harris’ fortune was eaten up compensation claims and secret cash payments to alleged victims.

The disgraced star’s house in Bray, Berkshire.

In one case, a British woman was offered a pay-off of around $20,000 in 2015 after she claimed to have been abused, according to media reports.

As recently as last March, the pervert was being sued over an alleged sex attack on a Melbourne woman who claimed he sexually assaulted her at a foster carer camp on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula in 1982, The Herald Sun reported.

Harris’ only child, daughter Bindi Harris, supported her father while he attended court, despite allegations he had sexually assaulted one of her closest childhood friends.

In 2014, prosecutors in Harris’ sex crimes trial released a 2012 private email from Bindi to her father in which she described how inheriting his $20 million fortune would be like “winning the lottery”.

Bindi has previously defended her father as being from a diffferent era.

PM REACTS TO ROLF HARRIS’ DEATH

Anthony Albanese said his thoughts were with the victims of Harris following the disgraced Australian entertainer’s death at age 93.

Harris’s death was confirmed by the registrar at Maidenhead Town Hall on Tuesday.

He died of metastatic squamous cell carcinoma and old age on May 10, according to his death certificate lodged by his personal assistant Lisa Ratcliff.

“My thoughts are with victims for today, not just victims of Rolf Harris but for others as well,” Mr Albanese told ABC radio.

“It will be a day in which traumatic experiences could be revisited and my thoughts are with them,” he added.

“I hope that they, if they need support, reach out and get it today - that’s who my thoughts are with today.”

Rolf Harris at the front of his house in Bray in England’s Berkshire. He lived as a virtual recluse since his release from prison in 2017. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

Harris’ death certificate stated “the body (was) to be cremated”.

His family released a statement confirming he “recently died, peacefully, surrounded by family and friends and has now been laid to rest.

“They ask that you respect their privacy. No further comment will be made.”

It is believed he was farewelled at a private ceremony organised by Miles And Daughters funeral parlour about 15kms from his home in Crowthorne.

Private investigator William Merritt, who authored a recent book called Rolf Harris: The Defence Team’s Special Investigator Reveals the Truth Behind the Trials, confirmed he will work with Harris’ former KC Stephen Vullo to defend any outstanding sexual harassment complaints against the convicted paedophile.

“We will blow the so called truth of this documentary out of the water,” Mr Merritt said.

“Harris has gone to his grave a victim of his own naivety.

“His daughter Bindi is devastated by his death.”

Rolf Harris died from cancer and old age, according to his death certificate.

Harris’ lawyer Daniel Burke added any claims of sexual harassment, new or outstanding, against the entertainer would still be defended.

“Any claim will be robustly defended and Mr Harris will seek full costs against any person bringing a false claim,” Mr Burke said.

A former victim Australian Tonya Lee, against whom Harris was convicted of sexual harassment, said the news of his death had left her feeling relieved.

“He abused me three times on one day when I was 15 and on a theatre group trip to the UK. I’d have to say I’m not sad to hear he had died, frankly I’m relieved,” she said.

“He left me contemplated taking my life because of the abuse.”

As Harris cajoled those around him with tales of his career and good fortune, such was the devil in the smart blue suit able to fool and hide a lifetime of evil and dirty secrets.

It’s been a magical life,” he whimsically declared to enthusiastic applause in 2012 at the Australian High Commission in central London as he received yet another gong for services to the nation, an Order of Australia (AO) to add to his MBE, CBE and OBE.

But he knew police were on his tail and days later he would be exposed in his true form and never recover from the ignominy of being branded a heinous predator of opportunity, a paedophile, a convicted criminal.

In October last year it was revealed Harris was being fed by a tube and was unable to speak as he battled neck cancer and lived a virtual recluse.

He is survived by his wife Alwen Hughes who suffers Alzheimer’s and their daughter Bindi, both of whom have stood steadfastly behind Harris and blamed his generation for his “flirty” behaviour.

There will be no star-studded state funeral that would be afforded others who had equally enjoyed such immense success in a career that spanned the globe for 60 years.

Rolf Harris outside court in November 2017 when he launched an appeal to challenge his conviction for sex offences. Picture: Getty Images

There was the art, the hit songs, the high rating TV shows, the man many wanted to be seen or photographed with from the Queen and the then Prince Charles, now King, through to stars of stage and screen, his multifaceted talent to entertain never in dispute.

He was even commissioned in 2005 to paint the official portrait of the then reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II, the oil on canvas displayed proudly at Buckingham Palace for a time has since been lost.

Instead however, he will leave the world stage today only with public scorn notably from his victims who were young girls when he groomed and sexually and indecently assaulted them through his stellar career and for which in 2014 he was brought to justice.

Disgraced entertainer and singer Rolf Harris at Melbourne’s Town Hall in 2008.

He was, the public heard during his trial, a Jekyll and Hyde character with a dark side who liked to sexually play with children “like toys” and attracted them through his fame and charm.

Footage of the paedophile encouraging children to “say no” to would-be predators while he himself was offending re-emerged after his death.

He had launched his ‘Kids Can Say No’ campaign at the height of his career in 1985, at a time when he was still abusing young victims.

The 20-minute video - which was Harris’s idea - was shown widely in schools and saw the household name discuss ‘touching’ and the difference between ‘yes’ and ‘no.’

In a disturbing mirroring of his own crimes, his 1985 educational video features a role play of a young girl being improperly touched by the father of her friend and warns ‘even people you trust’ can be abusers.

He tells a group of primary school children: ‘You can also get a ‘’no’’ feeling from people that you do already know.

“It’s quite hard to say no to these people because you feel that you’re always supposed to be nice to them. Or at least you feel you should do what they ask you.”

His own victims would tell a court almost 30 years later that they never spoke out themselves because they feared they would not be believed.

Rolf Harris was born in Bassendean in Western Australia and had been a champion swimmer in his youth but his talents as an artist were always going to see him move on. He moved to England in 1952 to study at the London Art School and found part time shifts on the BBC doing cartoon drawings. His talent was quickly identified beyond his art with his ability to adlib and entertain.

He also performed at the Down Under Club in Fulham in London’s west, for four hours entertaining expats with jokes and songs. It was here he first sang ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport’, a song he was so embarrassed about he didn’t initially admit he wrote. He was booed off stage.

Rolf Harris with wife Alwen at home in Bray in 2001. Picture: Tim Anderson

A week later someone in the crowd called out ‘sing us that mad Australian song’, there was applause and he sang it every week for two years before he would record it and in four weeks it went to Number 1 in Australia. In the UK he worked with George Martin, who was working with the Beatles which then collaborated on a TV show with Harris. The Rolf Harris Show in 1967-1974 become a hit in the UK backed by Top 10 hit songs including Sun Arise, Jake the Peg and Two Little Boys, his biggest hit which went to Number 1 in 1969 in the UK and charted in the US and Australia.

Harris would often say it was about having limitless self-confidence and the ability to look anyone in the eye. He credited his ability to speak to people for his success at Glastonbury for which he was invited to perform seven times. His improvising and experimenting with instruments and beat-boxing saw the creation of the Wobble board which would feature in many of his hit songs.

Rolf Harris in Adelaide, 1978.

His success in recording was matched by success on television with numerous hit shows including hosting the reality Animal Hospital program centred on a busy British vet clinic for which he won five TV awards for most popular entertainment.

Then in 2012 detectives from Operation Yewtree, set up to investigate British entertainer and national icon Jimmy Saville who assaulted more than 450 people over a five decade period; the probe was split into two branches, one looking at Saville and the second one “others” including Rolf Harris.

He was later charged with 12 counts of indecent assault involving girls as young as seven years and dating back to the 1960s to which he denied all charges. During his trial it was revealed one of his victims was one of his daughter’s best friends but he claimed their sexual relationship only began when she turned 18 and he in his 50s.

He was found guilty of all 12 charges and was sentenced to five years and nine months. He was then charged with seven further indecent assault charges and one of sexual assault, he was acquitted of three and the jury could not reach verdicts on the others.

During his main trial, such was the perennial entertainer Harris would sketch characters in court and at one stage sang a verse of Jake the Peg and mimicked the wobble board before he was reminded the courtroom was not a talent show.

He wanted to entertain, remind people who he was before the public would decide what he was.