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Rolf Harris Sentenced To 5 Years And 9 Months Imprisonment

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14 Comments

by | July 4, 2014 · 1:19 pm

14 responses to “Rolf Harris Sentenced To 5 Years And 9 Months Imprisonment”

  1. Mr G Silkstone
    July 8, 2014 at 1:56 am

    The evidence against Harris appears to show that apart from his indiscretions with his daughters friend that convictions were in the main obtained by word of mouth for the other charges which is somewhat disturbing given that the criteria for a conviction in English Criminal Law is supposed to be that the case is proved ‘beyond reasonable doubt ‘.The problem with these historic sex cases is that there isn’t really sufficient evidence to put before a jury after 50 years so I am baffled as to how these verdicts are arrived at even though this may be the right one.It doesn’t bode well for other areas of criminal law as there are serious flaws in some parts of our justice system in particular the ‘joint enterprise’ convictions and during the street riots when gullible teenagers were given 12 months during the hysteria for stealng a dozen ‘cokes.’I would like to see an end to the public compensation fund payouts to the ‘ victims ‘ of sexual assaults which is clearly open to abuse after cases like this and encourages the compensation chasers to come out of the woodwork after years of silence.Only in exceptional cases is it an excuse in my opinion not to report a crime at the time when it is alleged to have been committed.
    As for Harris’s punishment if 5 years is considered by some to be lenient where do they stand on Andy Coulson who gets a mere 18 months for sodding people’s lives up ? Another flaw in the justice system in a trial which has been going on forever and has cost millions.

  2. Becky
    July 4, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    To those concerned that an 84-year-old has been tried for historic sex abuse crimes, found guilty and sent to prison they should realise that trying to argue for sympathy because of his age misses the point. We try and sentence Nazi war criminals for the heinous abuses against humanity that they are guilty of because it is the right and just thing to do. It’s the principle of the thing and it is important that such people should be held accountable for their crimes.

    • steve
      July 4, 2014 at 8:27 pm

      Very well put

    • Sabre
      July 5, 2014 at 8:25 am

      Very high minded if somewhat naive. We are very choosy about who we prosecute for war crimes, Tony Bliar hasn’t been questioned under caution let alone prosecuted. An Israeli General was permitted to escape an arrest warrant at Heathrow because the police feared that the criminal in question might fire shots! They also checked in with the Community Tensions Unit and discovered that the Jewish Community would be pissed off, the Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/feb/20/uksecurity.israelandthepalestinians

      Sidney Cook was protected by police after completing his sentence re Jason Swift, we didn’t realise at the time that he was supplying boys to sex parties which may well have included an ex cabinet minister amongst the attendees.

      Greville Janner seems to be a person of interest to the police at the moment, he was named in court decades ago !

    • pongo
      July 5, 2014 at 5:02 pm

      these `heinous abuses against humanity` by Nazi war criminals are still happening now by their victims (i.e Israel to Palestinians). When will Israel be accountable? (i.e NUMEROUS (60 plus I think) UN violations against Palestinians by Israel, 2 UN violations against Hussein of Iraq, bomb/kill/slaughter that nation by the west). I love principles me! (lol)

  3. pongo
    July 4, 2014 at 3:14 pm

    I have used Childline and NSPCC (and Barnardos) because they advertised for persons to phone them in crisis. Are you telling me Steve 500 plus victims of Sir Jim not one phoned these services? Are you telling me Steve MI5 did not know Sir Jim shoe size/waist measurement/etc etc before they told the Queen and Vatican to give him honours?

    Steve I like you – by any chance are you a farmer? have you a cow? because I can/will exchange these 6 `magic beans` for your cow – sow the beans Steve and then etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etyc etc

  4. pongo
    July 4, 2014 at 2:39 pm

    not really its all a joke if it was so serious why did the judge split the charges? how come Childline never got calls from Jim/Stuart/rolf/Ciyril`s victims? how come MI5 never told the Queen that they should not receive an honour?
    Thats the joke!

    • steve
      July 4, 2014 at 2:45 pm

      and how do you no they did not get calls,and you deff no mi5 knew it was going on,oh come on your info must be better than anyones then

  5. pongo
    July 4, 2014 at 1:55 pm

    I think Rolf`s defence was all wrong – fancy saying in the witness box that the jury should not convict him because he invented the `waddle board` – silly man!

  6. alanbowker
    July 4, 2014 at 1:47 pm

    Yes.. STOP THE COVER-UPS:

    Women who sexually abuse our children – why aren’t ALL child sex abusers being prosecuted?

    OPEN LETTER to Sir Stephen House, QPM, Chief Constable of Police Scotland
    January 2014

    Dear Sir,

    Sadly, I find it necessary to address this Open Letter to you only after my own MP has written to you directly and repeatedly over an eight month period, by asking for action on Child Sex Abuse.
    Despite these representations, neither a meaningful response nor action have been forthcoming.

    Our concern is that despite senior officers of Police Scotland formally claiming that all child sex abuse reports are taken “very seriously indeed”, the facts don’t support this assertion.

    As an example, with respect to one incident, Police Scotland and yourself were made aware of a formal report in January 2013, and a formal complaint made in March 2013, yet despite evidence including a viable formal Witness Statement and Expert Psychological support documentation, the female suspect has been neither questioned nor interviewed.

    This is clearly not an isolated incident. Research findings by prestigious child protection organisations such as NSPCC/Childline/The Lucy Faithfull Foundation/Kidscape, together with findings reported in numerous academic journals, confirm that in between 5 – 20% of all occurrences of child sex abuse, the abusers are women. (1)
    In a paper published in 1984, Petrovich & Templer reported that 59% of incarcerated (male) rapists had been sexually abused when they were children, by one or more women.

    Anecdotal evidence suggests that these research conclusions are accurate, and that the criminal justice system treats women who sexually abuse children very leniently compared with men who sexually abuse children.
    This is entirely consistent with my own research and personal experience.

    Within the past reported twelve months, it’s been confirmed that in my local policing area alone that there were NO instances of women been convicted of any of the 27 possible categories of sexual abuse of children. In the same area, over the same period, 78 men were convicted of such offences. The political party Justice for men & boys (and the women who love them) http://j4mb.org.uk is taking an increasing interest in the topic of women committing sexual abuse of children, and the reluctance of the police to prosecute them. (2)

    My recent Freedom of Information requests (FOI 2013-1171 & 2013-1447) via Police Scotland for statistics and data across all Scottish regions, and nationally, over three years, also confirms that convictions of female perpetrators of child sex abuse are insignificant.

    Not only is this a possible infringement of the Scottish Equality Act 2010, it’s also inconsistent with the public claim that Police Scotland take all child sex abuse offences “very seriously indeed”.

    References:
    (1) Bibliography of Female Child Sex Abusers
    (2) http://j4mb.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/women-who-sexually-abuse-children/

    Name and Address Supplied

    ****************************************************************************************

    Ms Lesley Thomson XXX
    Solicitor General XXX
    Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service XXX
    25 Chambers Street XXX
    EDINBURGH XXX
    EH11 1LA

    29th June 2014

    Witness Interference.
    Child Sex Abuse Investigations

    Dear Ms Thomson,

    Further to my earlier communication.

    Since I last wrote to you, I’ve had numerous communications with Superintendent XXX and I have had a long meeting with XXX, Fiscal Depute at Kilmarnock.

    Unfortunately, it appears that my suspicions are founded, that there appears to be a clear agenda in covering up the evidence against a child sex abuser with a view to ensuring no criminal proceedings are pursued.

    May I respectfully ask you to review the enclosed documentation to draw your own conclusions?

    Deliberately and persistently avoiding processing fingerprint evidence, failing to actively investigate the actions of the suspect of both child abuse and witness interference, failing to acknowledge and deny confessions of criminal activity under oath and ultimately failing to record these confessions in order to award immunity are not the actions that ought to be expected from an honest Scottish criminal justice system.

    Yours sincerely,

    XXXXX

    cc. Sir Stephen House, QPM
    Ms Katy Clark, MP

    Enc/

  7. steve
    July 4, 2014 at 1:23 pm

    Small consolation to the victims and there familys but its a start,now lets get the real predators up in court those that seem to get away it due to there jobs and friends in high places,eg Politicians,Police and so forth

    • godhelpus
      July 4, 2014 at 1:49 pm

      No NOT Long enough!!!! He was a real predator it does not Matter on what scale or amount!!!!!….. …….Yes.I agree with you about the rest of them too.

      • steve
        July 4, 2014 at 1:58 pm

        Totally agrre not long by half,i personaly think sentences should start at minimum of 10yrs and should carry a full term mandatory life sentence as well,we realy have to protect ourselves from these perverts as if we are all honest that is what they are,and no one is ever safe from them whilst out in the community