Entertainer Rolf Harris has been in the public eye for most of his life but will this week be under a spotlight more intense than ever when his indecent assault trial begins in London.
Rolf Harris, 84, denies sexually harassing four victims, one as young as seven or eight, between 1968 and 1986.
The Australian is the most well-known celebrity to be charged under Operation Yewtree, the British police probe established in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex scandal.
Publicist Max Clifford was last week sentenced to at least four years jail for a string of sex assaults against teenagers following a six-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.
The 1980s beige-brick building on the banks of the Thames is where Harris’s trial starts on Tuesday.
It’s expected to take two months and hear from dozens of witnesses.
The small courtroom 2 will be crammed with British and Australian reporters.
Perth-born Harris is even more famous in the UK than his homeland which he left in 1952.
He travelled to London as a 22-year-old to study art and quickly broke into television, initially by drawing cartoons with a puppet called Fuzz.
In 1958 Harris married Welsh sculptress Alwen Hughes who, along with daughter Bindi, has been by Harris’s side at his initial court appearances.
The Australian in mid-January formally pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of indecent assault against four girls aged between seven and 19.
He is also facing four counts of making indecent photographs of a child in 2012.
But he’s yet to be arraigned on the images charges.
Harris’s reputation has already been harmed by the allegations.
The Australian was first questioned in November 2012. Harris was arrested in March 2013, rearrested in early August and charged three weeks later.
Additional counts were added in December.
During 2013 the one-time royal favourite was dropped as the face of British Paints, the host of hit TV show Animal Clinic and as the narrator on Olive the Ostrich.
Harris’s paintings were removed from cruise liners including the Queen Mary 2 and no-one seems to know what’s happened to his 2005 portrait of Her Majesty.
At Harris’s first court date in September 2013 he appeared frail and confused.
He looked healthier and more relaxed when formally pleading not guilty in mid-January. He even hummed a tune to himself as he arrived at court.
The performer, who gave the world the wobble board and the nonsensical Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, hasn’t been seen in public since.
But all eyes will be on the 84-year-old when he arrives at Southwark Crown Court and takes his place in the dock.
