Inside Rolf Harris’ health battles as shamed star couldn’t talk or eat due to neck cancer and needed 24-hour care
AT the end of his twisted life, Rolf Harris couldn't walk or eat and needed 24-hour care.
The predator had been "gravely ill" with neck cancer in his final months, and was said to be gargling to talk and being fed by tubes.
The sex offender died aged 93 - his death was registered by his family today.
Rumours of Harris' declining health had been circling since 2019, when neighbours said the twisted man only ever left his house with his carer.
And when the predator was snapped in public in 2020, he looked sickly as he struggled to move along the pavement with a walking stick.
At the time he was seen taking his pet poodle out for a walk in a sleeveless jacket and sandals, shuffling alone with his cane.
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One neighbour said: “He’s in poor health and has declined rapidly.
"He doesn’t come out anymore and when he does it’s only ever with his carer.”
A month later he was photographed looking even sicker as he made his way towards the passenger seat of a car using the stick.
Then, in October last year, it was claimed the predator's health was in rapid decline.
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Neighbour Portia Wooderson told : “Only carers and nurses – who care for him 24 hours – come and go. I’m told he can’t eat anymore.”
It was said he went downhill even more last year after his poodle suddenly died in the months prior.
At the time, Private investigator William Merritt said: "He's battling a cancer of the neck, and gargles when he talks."
Merritt said, however, that Harris was "still the entertainer", adding: "As soon as one of two people walk into the room, he turns into a big kid again.
"He's an artistic type, and he'll try to perform on cue, even when he's unwell."
The sex offender shot to fame in the 1950s as a kids entertainer on the BBC - often appearing alongside fellow paedo Jimmy Savile.
Harris became a national treasure who painted The Queen and appeared at kids festivals and on TV adverts, receiving a raft of honours for his work.
But his 60-year career came crashing down when a childhood pal of his only child, Bindi, - known as Victim A - came forward alleging Harris groomed her aged just 13.
Harris was 84 when a jury at Southwark Crown Court unanimously found him guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault involving victims as young as seven or eight, in July 2014.
He was sentenced to five years and nine months.
In May 2017 Harris was released on licence. In the same month he was formally cleared of four unconnected historical sex offences, which he had denied.
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Later that year, one of the 12 indecent assault convictions was overturned by the Court of Appeal.
The paedo - awarded an MBE, OBE and later CBE - was stripped of all of his honours in 2015.
