Rolf Harris’s legacy will not be as an artist who painted the Queen, or a musician who played with The Beatles, but rather as a sexual predator who carried out decades of abuse.
Once considered a jovial entertainer, on our screens for more than 60 years, a high-profile trial in 2014 saw him convicted of carrying out sex attacks on girls as young as seven.
Prosecutor Sasha Wass QC described Harris as a “Jekyll and Hyde” character, who, despite his child-friendly public image, was a “sinister pervert” with a “demon lurking beneath his charming exterior”.
The fact his depraved actions went without punishment for so long adds to the trauma for many of his victims, who say they will never recover.
How did his crimes go unchecked?
Again and again, Southwark Crown Court heard about the large, all-enveloping bear hug he would use to trap victims, swiftly sexually assaulting them before moving on as if nothing had happened.
One of the most damning pieces of evidence was a letter he sent to the father of one of his victims, in which he admitted he had a sexual relationship with her, but denied it began when she was just 13.
In the letter, Harris said he was shocked when his former victim told him she had gone along with everything he did “out of fear” and had asked her: “Why did you never just say no?”
He said she replied: “How could [I] say no to the great television star Rolf Harris?”
Image: Rolf Harris once visited Buckingham Palace to paint the Queen
Harris filmed NSPCC video while abusing youngsters
One early sign of his brazen self-belief can be found in an educational video titled Kids Can Say No.
Harris himself suggested the safety video was made, even contacting the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) to gain advice on the best way to teach children about stranger danger.
Harris is now known to have been actively abusing youngsters at the time.
Filmed in 1985, Harris presents the 20-minute video, and tells a group of primary school-age children, “even people you know and trust can be abusers”.
He goes on to warn them, “sometimes people do things to one another that don’t make them feel good”.
In the video’s finale, a large group of children and adults are led by Harris in singing: “My body’s nobody’s body but mine. You’ve got your own body, let me have mine.”
Two uniformed police officers make up part of the choir.
Image: A young Harris pictured in 1955, three years after moving to the UK
Harris on Savile: ‘We go back a long time’
Skipping forward seven years, and more archive footage – this time of Harris drawing paedophile DJ Jimmy Savile in 1992 and joking “we go back a long time” – now has disturbing implications.
Savile died aged 84 in 2011, having never been brought to justice for his crimes. He is now believed to be one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.
Harris’s 2014 trial saw a jury of six men and six women find him guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault on women and girls between 1969 and 1986. One of those convictions was later overturned.
Sentenced to five years and nine months in prison, he served just three.
Harris always denied the accusations against him and showed no remorse for his crimes.
Image: Harris with entertainer Rod Hull and Emu in 1987
Why did Harris feel untouchable?
Described in court as an arrogant man, who carried out many of his attacks in plain sight, Harris seemed to believe himself untouchable.
Born in Perth, Australia, to parents who had emigrated from Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, Harris moved to the UK in 1952.
He met his wife Alwen, a sculptor – who stood by him throughout his trial and time in jail – when they were both art students in London.
Image: Harris leaving court with his wife Alwen (L) and daughter Bindi (R) in June 2014
With a fair talent for painting and music, and ability to chat and entertain, it was a 10-minute art slot on a BBC children’s programme alongside a puppet called Fuzz that gave him the first taste of the limelight in 1953.
Swiftly embraced by British TV, he went on to front popular shows including The Rolf Harris Show, Rolf’s Cartoon Club and Rolf On Art.
A musical career, mainly with novelty songs, saw him top the charts with his cover version of Two Little Boys resting at number 1 for six weeks.
Harris’s career defied that of many children’s presenters, who struggle to maintain popularity after progressing into more mainstream shows.
His 10-year stint presenting Animal Hospital from 1994 to 2004 kept him a household name. Frequently becoming emotional about an unwell puppy or injured cat, it was an empathy Harris seemed unable to offer to his victims.
Image: Harris was a fan of the didgeridoo, and claims to have invented the wobble board
Following his conviction, he wrote a song in jail, describing his victims as money-grabbing “wenches” who want to make him “dance”.
Harris may have wanted to be remembered as a warm-hearted man who loved animals, invented the wobble board and could draw at the speed of light.
Stripped of his CBE and BAFTA fellowship, he will instead be remembered as a paedophile and serial sexual abuser.
Harris once told a journalist his greatest fear was not being loved.
As news of his death aged 93 is met around the world, it’s a fear that has been realised, due to his actions – and his actions alone.
The threat of physical attacks by Iran on people living in the UK has increased “significantly” since 2022, according to a new report by parliament’s intelligence watchdog.
Iran poses a “wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat” to the UK, according to the Intelligence and Security Committee.
It also said Iran’s intelligence services were “willing and able – often through third party agents – to attempt assassination within the UK, and kidnap from the UK”.
Image: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pic: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters
The report said there have been 15 murder or kidnap attempts against British citizens or UK-based individuals since the beginning of 2022 and August 2023.
Sky News has approached the Iranian embassy for a comment.
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The report authors add: “Whilst Iran’s activity appears to be less strategic and on a smaller scale than Russia and China, Iran poses a wide-ranging threat to UK national security, which should not be underestimated: it is persistent and crucially – unpredictable.”
The committee also says that while the threat is often focused on dissidents and other opponents to the regime, there is also an increased threat to Jewish and Israeli interests in the UK.
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The report warns that while Iran has not developed a nuclear weapon, it has taken steps towards that goal.
It found that Iran had been “broadly compliant” with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aimed at limiting its nuclear ambitions.
But since Donald Trump withdrew from that deal in 2018, the report said the nuclear threat had increased and Tehran “had the capability to arm in a relatively short period”.
The UK government is also accused of “fire-fighting” rather than developing a real understanding of Iran.
Image: Iran’s president oversees a parade in Tehran in April showing off the country’s military hardware. Pic: West Asia News Agency/Reuters
Image: Missiles are paraded through the capital during the recent National Army Day ceremony. Pic: West Asia News Agency/Reuters
The report says: “The government’s policy on Iran has suffered from a focus on crisis management, driven by concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme, to the exclusion of other issues.
“As one of our expert witnesses told the committee: ‘Strategy is not a word that I think has crossed the lips of policy makers for a while, certainly not in relation to Iran’.”
The committee concluded its evidence-taking in August 2023, the result of two years of work, but the report authors say their conclusions “remain relevant”.
But the report authors questioned whether UK sanctions against individuals would “in practice deliver behavioural change. Or in fact unhelpfully push Iran towards China”.
The committee also said the British government should consider proscribing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), although some argue it would limit the UK’s ability to talk to and influence Iran.
Responding to the report, a UK government spokesperson said: “The government will take action wherever necessary to protect national security, which is a foundation of our plan for change.
“We have already placed Iran on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme and introduced further sanctions against individuals and entities linked to Iran, bringing the total number of sanctions to 450.”
British security services say Tehran uses criminal proxies to carry out its work in Britain.
In December, two Romanians were charged after a journalist working for a Persian language media organisation in London was stabbed in the leg. In May, three Iranian men appeared in court charged with assisting Iran’s foreign intelligence service and plotting violence against journalists.
Earlier this year, the UK government said it would require the Iranian state to register everything it does to exert political influence in the UK, because of what it called increasingly aggressive activity.
The first thing you notice when immigration officers stop a possible illegal moped delivery driver is the speed in which the suspect quickly taps on their mobile.
“We’re in their WhatsApp groups – they’ll be telling thousands now that we’re here… so our cover is blown,” the lead immigration officer tells me.
“It’s like a constant game of cat and mouse.”
Twelve Immigration Enforcement officers, part of the Home Office, are joining colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police in a crackdown on road offences and migrants working illegally.
The West of England and Wales has seen the highest number of arrests over the last year for illegal workers outside of London.
“It is a problem… we’re tackling it,” Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says. He covers all the devolved nations.
“This is just one of the operations going on around the country, every day of the week, every month of the year.”
Image: Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says his team are attempting to tackle the issue
Just outside the Cabot Circus shopping complex, we stop a young Albanian man who arrived in the UK on the back of a truck.
He’s on an expensive and fast-looking e-bike, with a new-looking Just Eat delivery bag.
He says he just uses it for “groceries” – but the officer isn’t buying it. He’s arrested, but then bailed instantly.
We don’t know the specifics of his case, but one officer tells me this suspected offence won’t count against his asylum claim.
Such is the scale of the problem – the backlog, loopholes and the complexity of cases – that trying to keep on top of it feels impossible.
This is one of many raids happening across the UK as part of what the government says is a “blitz” targeting illegal working hotspots.
Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, joins the team for an hour at one of Bristol’sretail parks, scattered with fast food chains and, therefore, delivery bikes.
Image: Border security and asylum minister, Angela Eagle, speaks to Sky News
She says arrests for illegal working are up over the last year by 51% from the year before, to more than 7,000.
“If we find you working, you can lose access to the hotel or the support you have [been] given under false pretences,” she said.
“We are cracking down on that abuse, and we intend to keep doing so.”
There are reports that asylum seekers can rent legitimate delivery-driver accounts within hours of arriving in the country – skipping employment legality checks.
Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat all told Sky News they’re continuing to strengthen the technology they use to remove anyone working illegally.
But a new Border Security Bill, working its way through Parliament, could see companies fined £60,000 for each illegal worker discovered, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.
“I had them all in to see me last week and I told them in no uncertain terms that we take a very tough line on this kind of abuse and they’ve got to change their systems so they can drive it out and off their platforms,” the minister tells me.
For some of those who arrive, a bike and a phone provide a way to repay debts to gang masters.
There were eight arrests today in Bristol, one or two taken into custody, but it was 12 hours of hard work by a dozen immigration officers and the support of the police.
As two mopeds are pushed onto a low-loader, you can’t help but feel, despite the best intentions, that at the moment, this is a losing battle.
We see the boat from a distance – the orange of the life jackets reflected in the rising sun.
And as we draw closer, we can make out dozens of people crowded on board as it sets off from the shore, from a beach near Dunkirk.
There is no sign of any police activity on the shore, and there are no police vessels in the water.
Instead, the migrants crammed into an inflatable dinghy are being watched by us, on board a private boat, and the looming figure of the Minck, a French search and rescue ship that soon arrives.
Image: Minck, a French search and rescue ship, shadows the boat
The dinghy meanders. It’s not heading towards Britain but rather hugging the coast.
A few of the passengers wave at us cheerfully, but then the boat starts to head back towards the shore.
Image: Sky’s Adam Parsons at the scene
As it nears a different beach, we see a police vehicle – a dune buggy – heading down to meet it.
Normal practice is for French police officers to slice through the material of any of these small boats that end up back on shore.
Two police officers get out of the buggy and wait. A police helicopter arrives and circles above, performing a tight circle over the heads of the migrants.
The police think they might be about to go back on to the beach; in fact, these passengers know that most of them are staying put.
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The boat stops a short distance from the shore and four people jump out. As they wade towards the beach, the boat turns and starts to head back out to sea.
We see the two police officers approach these four men and have a brief conversation.
They don’t appear to check the bags they are carrying and, if they do question them about why they left the boat, it is the most cursory of conversations.
In reality, these people probably don’t speak French but they were almost certainly involved in arranging this crossing, which is against the law. But all four walk away, disappearing into the dunes at the back of the beach.