Rolf Harris, now infamous as he’s fresh from three new charges of sex offences on top of the seven others he was put on trial for in the first place (some going back decades), might be freed from prison in July as a judge has cleared him of the new charges and the jury has been discharged on four other counts.
Prosecutors have a week to choose a course of action
Like near enough every other rapist in the world, it’s looking Harris will walk free. His prosecutors have been given a week to decide whether or not they will retry him on four charges, but it’s not looking good.
Harris is currently in jail, having been convicted in 2014 for twelve sexual assaults.
If the prosecutors decide against a retrial, since it looks pretty futile at this point and there is probably some shady dealings going on behind the scenes on this one, Harris could be a free man by July, just in time for a nice summer holiday if he’s quick with the booking.
Jury discharged from returning verdicts
Harris stood trial for six charges of indecent assault as well as one charge of sexual assault, each from a different accuser. The sex offences he committed took place between 1971 and 2004, and only came to light in recent years.
The trial took place at Southwark Crown Court in London and, in just a few days, the judge and jury decided that the Australian entertainer was innocent of three of the seven assaults.
The jury was then discharged from returning verdicts about the four other counts of sexual crimes. Harris is still in jail after the trial back in 2014 that ended in his conviction for twelve sexual assault charges against four female victims.
Jail sentence could be cut short
In July 2014, Harris was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison, of which he has only served two years and seven months so far.
However, with the latest trial finding him not guilty, he could be back on the streets by this coming July.
The new trial has found Harris innocent of the indecent assault of a young girl who simply wanted his autograph in Portsmouth in the late 1970s. He was also officially cleared of a sex offence involving a woman who was blind and disabled, also in the late 1970s. The other charge he was cleared of was also the most recent; the sexual assault of a middle-aged woman following the shooting of a TV show in 2004.
