I'm quite astounded at the poor Rolf aspect to this thread.
This is about someone who was doing their groping inside the pants of quite young girls, not a misunderstanding over consent with another adult.

Its not a case of some innocent hugs with someone later deciding that Rolfs hand was a little out of place. Quite clear sexual abuse of children which while seemingly popular with some not as far as I'm aware socially or legally acceptable at the time.

I do get bothered by the difficulty a defendant would face providing clear recollections so many years after the events but I've not got the impression that the guilty verdict was based on flimsy evidence. I don't know neat answers to that issue, child sexual abuse is an issue where the victims often feel powerless to address the issue for a long time afterwards especially when the abuser has such a high and popular profile. Its only relatively recently that I've seen much indication that authorities will go after celebraties on that issue.

It seems quite credible to me that after years of feeling powerless to have an abuser brought to justice a trigger event such as public awards for the abuser might be enough for the abused to take the risk of getting it dealt with.

There are people who end up on the wrong side of the justice system who deserve some sympathy. Someone who uses their profile to prey on children for their own satisfaction is not one of them.

R0bert

individual,

I actually "revolted" by your comments....blaming the girls.

I'm sure, you'd be thrilled, if you had daughters, if what happened to me when I was ten had happened to them.

Sexually innocent ten year-old is lured by step-father of friend to sit on his knee...other people in the room....hands roaming to definitely where they shouldn't have been.

Child (me) "shocked!"...speechless...goes outside feeling dirty and confused.

My fault was it?

Men with your attitude disgust me.

And men who take the opportunity like cuddly Rolf did need to be brought to account.

(Btw...that revolting step-father of friend tried it again...and was stopped in his tracks by the ten-year old me)

Oh come on Poirot,
You're only getting dirty because old Rolf wasn't one of your leftie touching boys brigade. His crime was being a heterosexual.
Btw, did you end up getting your stepfather locked up or wasn't he famous enough ?

There's no pleasing you is there Ludwig...

You complain about inaction on the part of police in pursuing allegations (of traffic related offences) and manage to also complain when they do (in this case of sexual assault).

Rolf Harris has had his day (well months, really) in court, obtained expensive defense council to present his case, been judged by a jury of ordinary people who unlike anyone here had the opportunity to listen to all of the evidence presented, and was found guilty.

Occasionally a legal system can deliver justice.

But my sentences are not the ones Rolf Harris will be concerned with.

There are no winners in this.

I get a sense of hysteria around this topic, with a number of inquiries going on at the moment.

woe betide an innocent who gets caught up in it.

Sorry Poirot, I don't know what it is with some people, are they just ignorant? It happened in my partners family, where a stepfather done I think 7 years for rape of a woman in NZ. Now back with partners sister, in NZ, and niece wont have a bar of him. We thought it was all to do with his crime of rape. We only recently found out from the niece, she is a grown woman now, after a very long talk, that her reason is not the rape of another person, all those years ago, so much, but the fact he (stepfather) molested her (the niece) when she was a child. Her mum can't understand why she wont have anything to do with the stepfather, "after all he's done time for a crime" and "he didn't do all that much to you...like he didn't rape you to". Now after hearing what her niece had to say, my partner is on her side, so am I. Yet we still cant abandon my partners sister, and we certainly wont abandon her niece. Its all very sad indeed.
Niece told her mother a long time ago what the stepfather had done to her, but although my partner and sister are so close, she never said one word about the molesting of her own daughter, only about the rape, which was public knowledge anyway, and let her sister believe it was the reason for the rift with her daughter. People are strange at times indeed. Niece does not want my partner to tell her mother thst she now knows what happened to her, unless sister tells her, which she never has, even though they have talked many times about the relationship.