'We didn't know how dangerous he was': How Rolf Harris hid in plain sight

How Rolf Harris hid in plain sightBy Katherine Smyrk Link copiedShareShare articleIn 1985, a child safety campaign called Kids Can Say No! was launched. Aimed to educate children between ages five and eight on how to protect themselves against sexual abuse, the instructional film was purchased by police forces, libraries and educational institutions across the UK and Australia, as well as being broadcast (twice) on the ABC. WARNING: This article contains details of sexual assault. The face of the campaign was Australian children's entertainer Rolf Harris. It would take another 29 years for Harris to be convicted in the United Kingdom of sexually assaulting four underage girls. But the eventual court case revealed that, during the time he was filming this public safety video, he was also sexually abusing his daughter's best friend. Simply called Victim A in proceedings, she was 13 years old when the abuse began. Rolf Harris was 84 years old when he was convicted of 12 charges of indecently assaulting four girls. (Supplied: ABC TV) While Harris was convicted of those assaults, numerous other women from all over the world have come forward with similar allegations. Since he died in 2023, they will never get a chance to prove it in court. But, as new ABC documentary Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator shows, the world did finally learn the truth of who really lurked behind the cheeky grin. Rolf Harris was born in 1930 in Bassendean, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. First gaining a teaching degree, Harris then went to study art in London, where he fell in with a group of other creative Aussie expats. There, he honed his entertainment skills, eventually writing the song that perhaps gained him most fame, 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport'. Kathy Lette, the co-author of Puberty Blues, was a teenager when she met Harris, and says she was inspired to encounter this "groundbreaking" group of people that she labelled the "gum-leaf mafia". "We had this incredible group of dazzling Aussie intellectuals and we would often get together and laugh at the English and kind of blow raspberries at the establishment," says Lette. "Barry Humphries, Clive James, Germaine Greer, and Rolf; they had to come and prove themselves to the parent country." Harris spent his whole adult life in the UK and, although his entire schtick was as the larrikin Australian, he seemed determined to establish a career overseas. After sniffing the scent of success through his hammy songs, including 'Jake the Peg' and 'Two Little Boys', Harris made his way onto TV. He spent years making a name for himself in Britain, including hosting TV series Animal Hospital, releasing cheesy covers of famous rock songs and performing a baffling seven times at the Glastonbury music festival. Rolf Harris at the unveiling of his portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on December 19, 2005. (AP Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth) But Harris's true validation came in 2005 when he was commissioned to paint a portrait of Queen Elizabeth for her 80th birthday. "Rolf Harris was very good at building contacts in very high places," says investigative journalist Meirion Jones. In 2012, Harris was once again honoured by the royal family, when he performed at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace. But it was this performance that led Victim A to come forward, and for Harris's protected persona to start crumbling around him. "I think that was too much for her," explains Chip Somers, a psychotherapist who worked with Victim A for many years before and during the time she exposed years of abuse by Harris. "I think she felt like it was like a dam bursting. She just thought, 'This is enough. This is enough!'" In 2013, Rolf Harris was charged by British police with 12 counts of indecent assault against underage girls. A part of Operation Yewtree, the police had been investigating a number of high-profile names after the crimes of Jimmy Savile were revealed. Harris pleaded not guilty to all charges. There were four complainants against Harris, who had all been abused in the UK: Victim A; Tonya Lee; Wendy Wild; and an unnamed 'Cambridge Victim'. There were four complainants in the case against Rolf Harris, as well as six character witnesses. (Supplied: ABC TV) The long, brutal court case that followed the charges revealed that Harris's abuse of these girls was brazen, leveraging the influence and trust he had carefully built. He abused Victim A in her home while her parents were there, or on family holidays while his daughter was nearby. Wild was assaulted at a community centre where she'd gone to get an autograph. Lee was assaulted when her Sydney youth theatre troupe was invited to visit the performer in the UK. "If I had said anything back then, I really don't know if anyone would have believed me," Lee says, after keeping her abuse secret for almost 30 years. There were also six character witnesses from Australia, New Zealand and Malta in the court c

'We didn't know how dangerous he was': How Rolf Harris hid in plain sight

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