Aust entertainer Rolf Harris is facing three additional sex assault charges involving new alleged victims.
ENTERTAINER Rolf Harris will be prosecuted over three further
allegations of assault the Crown Prosecution Service in London said
today.
The 83-year-old Australian appeared in court earlier this year
charged with nine counts of indecent assault and four of making indecent
images of children.But today the prosecution announced a review of evidence by police had seen a further two alleged victims come forward.
"The three counts will be prosecuted in addition to the 13 alleged sexual offences with which Mr Harris was charged on 29 August 2013," a spokesman said.
"The alleged offences relate to one existing complainant and two new complainants."
The new counts are against females aged 19 in 1984, aged seven or eight in 1968 or 1969, and aged 14 in 1975.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the allegations related to one existing complainant and two new ones. The count relating o the 19-year-old involves the same alleged victim as six of the earlier counts.
The CPS spokesman added: "These three allegations were included in the file sent to the CPS by the Metropolitan Police in August of this year; however, as part of the ongoing review process for all cases, it has been decided that these allegations should be formally added to the indictment as further counts.
"Evidence relating to these further counts has already been served on the court and the defence, so it is not necessary for Mr. Harris to appear again at magistrates' court."
The surprise announcement comes ahead of Harris's reappearance in Southwark Crown Court next month where he is expected to enter a plea on the charges.
His defence counsel has already indicated he planned to plea not guilty to all charges including six counts of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl in 1980 and 1981 and three charges of indecent assault on a girl aged 14 in 1986.
There were also four counts of making indecent images of a child in the first half of 2012. There are to be at least a dozen witnesses give evidence.
Harris has lived as a virtual recluse for several months since he was first spoken to by police last November and had his house in Bray on Thames, just outside of London, searched and his computer and other material seized.
He did perform two public concerts at one of which he thanked the public for their support he said was badly needed at that time.
Harris was first arrested in late March 2013, following his first speaking to police in November, by officers from Operation Yewtree which was established following the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.
Police have stated there is no link between the charges relating to Harris and the Savile case.
At the beginning of August he was rearrested following further allegations.
Harris has spent most of his adult life in Britain but at least one of his victims is thought to have been an Australian woman. Scotland Yard detectives interviewed her in Australia earlier this year.
There was no comment from the entertainer at his home this morning (local time).
A woman who answered the intercom at his gated River Thames-front home in Bray, an hour west of London, declined to comment on how he was coping following the latest charges which has again made front page news in some British newspapers.
"Thank you very much. Goodbye," they said.
A team of three workmen were carrying out repairs to the front of the entertainer's home during the day and earlier shopping was delivered to the property.
http://www.news.com.au/world/rolf-harris-facing-three-further-sexual-assault-charges/story-fndir2ev-1226788810229
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