Deadline: Rolf Harris’ abuse an open secret in showbiz industry

Ernie Sigley had just wound up a radio interview with Rolf Harris in the 1990s — he leaned back in his chair, stared at his producer and uttered one word: “paedophile”.

Rolf Harris lechery was well known in the showbiz industry.

Mark Buttler and Andrew Rule with the latest scallywag scuttlebutt.

Continued: The Jake-the-pig show

The Rolf Harris pile-on shows no sign of slowing down. Memories have obviously started to improve now he’s dead, which is fair enough, given defamation laws that protect reptiles while they are alive.

Latest in the queue of fresh accusers is former British weather presenter Ulrika Jonsson, who reveals that Harris groped her when she was launching her career in her early 20s, some 30 years ago.

The truth is that Harris’s predatory ways were notorious for a long time in “the business”, as the people in it call everything from acting to rock-n-roll, radio, television and theatre.

Insiders at radio 3AW clearly recall the day the late Ernie Sigley did a relentlessly cheery telephone interview with Harris back in the 1990s.

The two old stagers were chockablock full of showbiz bonhomie and banter. How they laughed! At the end, Ernie smiled into the mic and did the compulsory showbiz farewell, complete with “Luv ya, mate” or some such bogus bit of business.

As soon as Harris was off the line, Sigley threw to an ad break, leaned back in his chair, stared at his producer and panel operator, rolled his eyes and grunted one word.

“Paedophile.”

Insiders at radio 3AW clearly recall the day the late Ernie Sigley interviewed Harris.

In other words, Harris’s behaviour was an open secret for a long time before the law pinched him in 2013. Which makes you wonder how many people knew the truth about others, such as evil Jimmy Savile in the UK and cunning television producer Gavan Disney in Australia.

Disney never got near the heroically long tally of perverted offences that the spooky Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile did. But there were murmurs about Disney’s creepy ways with teenage work experience boys before he was charged (and acquitted) of sexual assault with a 17-year-old assistant at Ballarat.

This all reminds us of the old-style television producer some people in showbiz and media circles affectionately know as “Dirty Doug” — or was it Dave?

Regardless of his name, he was involved in casting a lot of dramas.

Whether or not a couch was involved in some instances will probably be revealed when the old varmint checks out. A string of female actors will be free to come forward then.

Him too? A dead ringer surfaces

Talking of alleged sex pests, Deadline hears unsubstantiated but riveting legal scuttlebutt of a forthcoming sexual assault case somewhere in regional Queensland.

Legal eagles and others are whispering it’s necessary for a complete cloak of secrecy to shroud the case because the accused appears to have exactly the same name and date of birth and general appearance as a person who has co-starred in another controversial case much further south.

If it’s as true as a lot of people want it to be.

Tatt’s that for Jimmey ink

Northern suburbs strongman Jimmey Barkho has long been one of the more colourful characters roaming Melbourne’s underworld. But word has it he’s not quite so colourful any more.

Gangland chatter is that Barkho has taken the edge off his flamboyance by removing some significant tattoos from his muscular form.

Those markings are said to be the “NCF” logos which have adorned his shoulders, clearly visible in old social media posts. Deadline has been unable to confirm the removal of said letters due to a lack of sightings of a shirtless Barkho in recent cold weather.

He was certainly wearing a top last week when he turned out for the big boxing card at Margaret Court Arena.

Gangland chatter is that Jimmey Barkho has taken the edge off his flamboyance.

Barkho is a bit of a fight-night regular. Last year, he was photographed with Anthony Mundine at another big boxing event.

NCF is not the initials of an old Barkho girlfriend. Nor is it the acronym for an organisation like, say, North Carlton Firemen. It actually stands for Notorious Crime Family, the northern suburbs gang of which Barkho was a founding member once upon a time.

The feared outfit has hit hard times of late with its leader, George Marrogi, busted on some significant international drug smuggling charges.

That is on top of a maximum 32 years he was already serving for the execution-style murder of Kadir Ors at Campbellfield Plaza in 2016.

Dozens of other Marrogi family members and NCF associates are facing charges over their alleged links to the operation. As good a reason to change tatts as any.

Eagles sting like a bee

The plaintiff law firm known around the traps as “Maurie Bees” is making sure that alleged sex assault victims not only get their day in court but some fairly robust representation and lively publicity.

They are not shy about it, sending out stinging media releases about their latest bit of courthouse biffo, this time with Fire Rescue Victoria over its failed bid to block a sex harassment case.

In what Maurie Bees (Maurice Blackburn on its letterhead) calls a “humiliating costs blow” to a “boys’ club,” the Victorian Supreme Court has ordered Fire Rescue Victoria to pay the costs of Commander Donna Wheatley after failing to have large parts of her serious sexual harassment complaint thrown out.

According to the killer bees’ media release, Fire Rescue Victoria also lost a move to have VCAT hear the Wheatley complaint, which claims decades of sexual harassment and a “culture of misogyny” at the fire brigade.

Just to be clear, Commander Wheatley alleges she was groped, kissed without consent, propositioned, flashed and subjected to pornography in the workplace during her career.

The brigade wants to block the hearing of the allegations on the grounds they occurred before 2015.

It claims some firefighters refuse to answer questions about the allegations and their silence causes prejudice against the organisation. A case of smoke and ladders?

The wrestling slaughterman

Slammin’ Sam Parker, as opposed to Slammin’ Sam Kekovich, has always been a quiet achiever in his sport, which is wrestling.

Parker is the former Yarraville battler who was an Australian wrestling champion four times and has been involved in 11 Olympics and six Commonwealth Games.

He was first emergency for the team in 1956 and was picked to go to Rome in 1960 but only on condition he could pay his way.

At the time, Sam was a young slaughterman at the old City Abattoirs, which stood across the road from Flemington racecourse in the spot where a new suburb now stands.

Wrestling legend Sam Parker gives some advice at the Australian Wrestling Championships.

But the “slaughts” and their union were always a tight bunch as well as a notoriously tough one. The hard cases on the killing line passed around the hat to send their workmate to Rome. And the union also sold badges for two shillings apiece to raise money to help pay his way.

The meat workers were “hard but fair,” as the saying goes. Some of them had their faults (such as robbery, thuggery and the odd manslaughter) but they would always kick in for someone who needed it.

It’s all in Sam’s book, The Highs And Lows, along with everything you might want to know about Australian wrestling and his part in it, from the early 1950s until now.

Round up usual protest suspects

Of course, the Extinction Rebellion protesters who brought parts of the Melbourne CBD to a standstill during peak hour last Thursday … they’d obviously be dreadlocked, unwashed, dole-bludging layabouts who are in their 20s but act like spoiled teenagers?

Er, well, not exactly. The six people that police charged over their part in the protest at the corner of Latrobe and Queen St don’t really fit the stereotype of those who might glue themselves to the road to impede the public and annoy police.

They are all older than 64, for a start. Among these charged with wilful damage is a 66-year-old Canterbury man, a 68-year-old Fitzroy North woman, a 69-year-old Clifton Hill woman and a 70-year-old Footscray man.

Note to police: please do not taser or handcuff them unless it is extremely dangerous not to. For some reason, the public seems to be against age pensioners being treated like terrorists.