Former entertainer Rolf Harris has been cleared of four sex assault charges after a jury could not reach verdicts.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors ruled out a further retrial for Mr Harris, who denied indecently assaulting three teenage girls at public events between 1971 and 1983.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the jury at Southwark Crown Court was discharged after spending five hours deliberating.<\/p>\n
In a statement read by his lawyer, Mr Harris said: “I feel no sense of victory, only relief”.<\/p>\n
He added: “I’m 87 years old, my wife is in ill health and we simply want to spend our remaining time together in peace.”<\/p>\n
It had been a retrial for Mr Harris on three counts after a jury in a previous trial failed to reached verdicts. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it would not seek a further retrial.<\/p>\n
The fourth count was a new charge of indecent assault.<\/p>\n
The jury began deliberating on Friday but was unable to reach unanimous or majority 10-2 decisions on any of the charges.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC said: “We have reviewed whether it would be appropriate to seek a further retrial on these allegations.<\/p>\n
“We have come to the firm view that it would not.”<\/p>\n
Mr Harris had been accused of groping a 14-year-old girl during a music event at the Lyceum Theatre in London in 1971.<\/p>\n
Two further charges related to alleged indecent assaults on a teenager in 1978, during filming for ITV celebrity show Star Games.<\/p>\n
The fourth related to a 13-year-old girl who said he touched her breast after filming BBC children’s TV programme Saturday Superstore in 1983.<\/p>\n
Mr Harris’s lawyers said he did not remember any of the events in question.<\/p>\n
He was released from Stafford Prison part-way through the trial, for an unconnected conviction in June 2014 of 12 counts of indecent assault.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"