Rolf Harris ‘groped a blind, disabled woman and slobbered all over her at London eye hospital’
ROLF Harris groped a blind, disabled woman and "slobbered all over her" at a London eye hospital, a court heard today.
The veteran entertainer is accused of a string of "brazen" public attacks against seven women and girls that span over 30 years.
The "vulnerable" blind woman was allegedly groped by Harris at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.
The woman, who was not at the time an in-patient in the hospital, recalled hearing a door to the room she was opening and recognising the voice of the TV star she was expecting to meet.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees told the jury: "She says he approached her and said 'Has anyone told you what a good-looking woman you are?'
"She put her hand out to shake his hand but Mr Harris said that he couldn't be doing with all that."
Then, he continued, "he crouched down, kissed the back of her neck and ... began slobbering over her.
"She told him to get off, she says, but he put one hand down the back of her skirt while he placed the other under her bottom over the top of her skirt."
Harris is then said to have taken off the woman's dark glasses which she was wearing to protect her eyes, telling her that he wanted to see her face, before allegedly cupping her breasts and squeezing her nipples.
She warned him that she would prise his fingers off her and hurt him if he did not stop, and while bending his fingers back became aware of a wedding ring on his left hand, Mr Rees said.
Another of the alleged victims was as young as 12, while the oldest was 42, a jury of seven women and five men at London's Southwark Crown Court heard.
None of the assaults, which are said to have taken place between 1971 and 2004 when Harris was aged between 41 and 74, are said to have involved "penetrative activity".
Rees said: "Most of the behaviour complained of falls into a broad category that might be described as unwanted groping, and includes, for example, grabbing or touching breasts over clothing, or slipping a hand up or into a skirt to touch the vaginal area."
He continued: "One notable feature of the case is that none these assaults is alleged to have happened in private; all appear, so it is alleged, to have occurred in public settings when there were other people in the near vicinity.
"And it may be that you will want to consider whether Mr Harris's celebrity status played any part in making him apparently so brazen in what it is alleged that he did."
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Another of the alleged attacks is said to have happened at a music studio near London Bridge.
Harris is said to have stroked an 18-year-old woman's lower back and said: "If you were to join up the two dimples on a woman's back to your bum crack it would make the shape of a diamond; I think it's really sexy."
Two men who saw the alleged incident described Harris's behaviour as "creepy, cringing and lecherous", the prosecutor said.
Rees said the prosecution expects Harris will say he has "never used the word or phrase 'bum crack' and that no intentional sexual touching took place".
He is also accused of grabbing a teenager's breast as he helped her on the TV programme Star Games in the summer of 1978.
Harris is said to have put his hand on her knee and slid it up her thigh over her jeans.
She later described him as a "dirty old man" to a family member when they asked how he had been, the jury heard.
Harris's niece and her husband were in court listening as the details of his alleged offences were read out.
Harris was interviewed by the police on February 3 and 4 2015 at Stafford police station.
In a prepared statement at the end of the two days, he said: "A number of women accused me of indecent assault or sexual assault on dates a number of years ago.
"I do not know any of these people and have little recollection of the events and circumstances they say they attended and met me."
He went on: "I deny sexually or indecently assaulting any of the people set out in the disclosure provided to me."
In his closing remarks, Mr Rees said the truth was that "Mr Harris's appetite for sexually assaulting young girls and women" had led him to commit the alleged offences, telling the jurors they must make their own minds up if this was so.
Harris was charged last year as part of Operation Yewtree, an inquiry into celebrities suspected of child sex offences.
He is standing trial via video link in a legal first because he will be too ‘ill, tired, or hungry’ if he has to attend in person.
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