Rolf Harris faces further sex charges
By Lloyd Jones, AAP London Correspondent
February 13, 2016, 1:54 am
Disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris is to be charged with seven further counts of indecent assault against girls and women, British prosecutors say.
In a statement on Friday the Crown Prosecution Service said there was sufficient evidence to charge Harris over the alleged offences dating from between 1971 and 2004, relating to seven complainants aged between 12 and 27 at the time.
The 85-year-old Australian-born artist and musician is currently serving a term of nearly six years at Stafford Prison on similar charges.
"We have carefully considered the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police Service as part of Operation Yewtree in relation to Rolf Harris," a CPS spokesperson said.
"We have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Harris to be charged with seven counts of indecent assault."
Harris will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on March 17.
London's Metropolitan Police confirmed on Friday that Harris will be charged with two counts of indecent assault of a girl under the age of 14 in 1971, 1977 and 1983 and four counts of indecent assault on a woman aged 16 or over in 1977, 1978, 2002 and 2004.
Harris was sentenced in July 2014 to five years and nine months' jail for indecently assaulting four girls in Britain between 1968 and 1986.
He is the most high-profile figure to have been convicted since Operation Yewtree was launched into celebrity sex crimes, following revelations in 2012 that late BBC TV host Jimmy Savile had been a prolific child abuser.
Harris shot to fame in the 1960s with comedic songs like Jake the Peg and became a major television personality in the UK.
In March last year the Queen stripped the entertainer of his CBE, a week after he was told to hand back his Order of Australia honours.
She had appointed Harris a Commander of the Order of the British Empire - one step below a knighthood - a year after the entertainer painted her portrait to mark her 80th birthday.
Harris is reportedly planning to release an album of songs he has composed in prison.
