Rolf Harris verdict

[c2105026]

As for a delay in coming forward - often victims will feel they are the only ones, and lack the confidence to come forward, for they think noone will believe them. The victims might even struggle to believe in their own story, due to the trauma of it. As soon as investigations get started, people start coming out, and victims realise they aren't alone, so more start coming out. Indeed testimony that is 40 years old can be doubtful due to the fallibility of human memory and could have played part in the long deliberation. Rolf was ultimately pinged under Operation Yewtree, which was investigating many celebrities from the period. Apparently 400 people came forward w.r.t. Jimmy Savile, Saville and Rolf were close associates, apparently.

 

[Immortality]

All of this came about because of the Jimmy Savile case. We have a couple of poms at work. Apparently it was well known what Savile did but nobody was brave enough to come forward because of who he was, no doubt it was a similar circumstance with Harris.

You have to remember that it's not like there was a "been fiddled by Harris" support group. In many instances the victims would have felt rather alone and not aware of any of the other victims. In such a case to make a complaint to the police or anybody else about someone who has such a good reputation would be a daunting prospect.

You have to remember, at the height of his offending, this sort of stuff wasn't reported much and when it was it wasn't handled very well by the authorities. How many times do you see cases of rape where the victim is made to re-live the whole ordeal on the witness stand. When it comes to cases of "He said, She said" which is very much what these cases come down to, a single complainant is going to find it very difficult to secure a conviction.

TBH, I think the sentence is on the light side when you consider it's already been said he will be transferred to a minimum security facility. I'd be much happier if he did his time in a regular UK jail with all the trimmings.

In the Harris case, he actually admitted to the "affair" with the daughters friend, he just tried to put his spin on it by saying it was consensual and she was off age. So in reality he's admitted to these charges and the bulk of the sentence stems from this offending. IMHO all the sentences should be served consecutively.

 

[Trayner]

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