Late on Tuesday, it was revealed that disgraced Aussie entertainer and convicted sex offender Rolf Harris died at the age of 93. Image credit: Brian Minkoff – London Pixels, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Late on Tuesday, it was revealed that disgraced Aussie entertainer and convicted sex offender Rolf Harris died at the age of 93.
However, the reveal of Harris’s death certificate shows that he actually died several weeks earlier.
The cause of death was listed as metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of neck (neck cancer) and “fragility of old age.”
Harris had a reputation as a beloved figure in family entertainment across Australia and the UK prior to 2014, when he was convicted of a string of indecent assaults occurring between 1968 and 1986, at the height of his career.
He was found guilty on 12 counts of sexual assault against four girls and young women, including the grooming of a 13-year old girl, a close friend of his own daughter.
Harris received a jail sentence of five years and nine months, but was released from prison in 2017.
At his sentencing, Mr Justice Sweeney told him: “You have shown no remorse for your crimes at all. Your reputation now lies in ruins, you have been stripped of your honours but you have no one to blame but yourself.”
Rolf Harris made no public appearances following his release from prison, and made no apology or admission of guilt to his victims.
Earlier this year, a woman named Lin Berwick spoke to The Guardian about her being assaulted by Harris on her radio show in 1977, a crime for which he was acquitted.
Lin, living with cerebral palsy and blindness, initially believed that her experience with Harris was unique.
“I thought I was the only one, and he’d only done it to me because I couldn’t move and I couldn’t see,” said Berwick.
“I understand he’s very sick now,” said Berwick.
“I wouldn’t wish anyone to have the kind of problems I have in my life. I have compassion for the fact that he’s sick. But as an individual who is going to have to meet his maker and atone for the things he has done: I’ve no compassion at all.”
A statement from Rolf Harris’s family, released through his solicitor, read:
“This is to confirm that Rolf Harris recently died peacefully surrounded by family and friends and has now been laid to rest.
“They ask that you respect their privacy. No further comment will be made.”
