British Police Arrest High Profile Entertainer in Sex Abuse Inquiry
Source: The New York Times
In the latest twist in the sexual abuse scandal that has shaken Britain's public broadcaster, one of the country's best known television entertainers, Rolf Harris, a singer-cum-artist who once painted a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, has been arrested on suspicion of unspecified sexual offenses, British news reports said on Friday.
Mr. Harris, 83, was arrested on March 28 as part of the investigation, Operation Yewtree, the police opened last year following hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse against Jimmy Savile, a onetime disc jockey and television personality who died in 2011 at the age of 84.
Like Mr. Savile, Mr. Harris had been known to a generation of Britons as an affable, if quirky, national treasure, a fixture on television and entertainment shows who played on his Australian roots and his skills as an artist and musician.
When detectives began Operation Yewtree, they divided abuse allegations into three main categories: those involving Mr. Savile himself, Mr. Savile along with other suspects and "others" accused of acting on their own. Mr. Harris, who has reportedly vehemently denied wrongdoing, fell into the category of "others," according to a police statement in March that did not identify him by name.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/20/world/europe/british-police-arrest-entertainer-in-abuse-inquiry.html
Throckmorton
(3,579 posts)msongs
(67,193 posts)jollyreaper2112
(1,941 posts)What's a cum artist?
muriel_volestrangler
(101,153 posts)but Rolf Harris always seemed, to me, a straight-forward bloke. Horrible if he had been not what he seemed.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)He'd already been bailed to appear in May. What hadn't been published was his identity. The Guardian has published the claim made by the Sun http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4894271/Rolf-Harris-sex-abuse-arrest.html
Could, I suppose, give a whole new meaning to his greatest hit.
T_i_B
(14,734 posts)It's now all over the mainstream media.
As has already been said, other suspects have been people such as Jim Davidson who aren't all that likeable, but Rolf Harris was always one of those whose TV shows I used to really like growing up.
> Could, I suppose, give a whole new meaning to his greatest hit.