Sick moment Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris joke about girl being 'safe' with them
Rolf Harris jokes with Jimmy Savile about leaving a girl “safely in his arms” in chilling footage that will sicken viewers of a new documentary.
Paedophile Savile and convicted sex abuser Harris appeared on screen together in a 1976 episode of Savile’s BBC show Jim’ll Fix It.
Savile reads a letter saying: “It do say here, dear Jimmy, I have always wanted to see Rolf Harris doing one of his paintings, please could you fix it for me. Love, Lynn.”
The camera then cuts to Savile and Harris on stage with the nervous-looking girl.
Savile says: “You see this young lady, sir? She wishes that she could help you with one of your paintings, do you think I may leave her in your charge?”
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Harris replies: “Safely leave her in my capable hands here...”
Pair laugh on Harris’ 1992 show (ITV/REX/Shutterstock)Harris then starts painting and tells Lynn: “Enjoying it so far? Give them a big smile because they only see the back of your head otherwise, you see?”
After the drawing is finished, Savile returns and Harris says: “She is anxious to run away.
Savile replies: “She is, I’ve got fast hold of her here...” Harris says: “You stay here and enjoy it, girl.”
Then huge TV stars, the pair also appeared side by side in 1992 on Rolf’s Cartoon Show and attended a fete at Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire, touring a ward together.
The Jim’ll Fix It footage is part of new ITV documentary Rolf Harris: Hiding In Plain Sight. There is no suggestion Lynn was abused.
The programme shows how Harris became a national treasure, who painted the Queen’s portrait in Buckingham Palace, but allegedly humiliated girls and sexually assaulted women for decades.
Rolf Harris at Broadmoor hospital (Mirrorpix)It includes the story of a woman known in court as Victim A, who was a family friend and was instrumental in gaining a conviction against the TV entertainer in 2014.
The grooming of Harris’ daughter Bindi’s childhood friend from her early teens was key evidence that led to his downfall.
Therapist Chip Somers, speaking on behalf of Victim A for the first time, says of her claims: “In the second half of the 1990s, a woman came looking for help for an alcohol problem. And it became apparent there was a huge secret that she was holding on to.
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“She was having an enormous amount of difficulty talking about.
“She had experienced prolonged instances of sexual abuse. And she has given me permission to talk about those experiences.
Savile at fete on the same day as Harris (Mirrorpix)“She said ‘This person is very well-known, I’ve been part of the family for some time and I don’t know whether or not I should say the name’. I reassured her and she said ‘it is Rolf Harris’.
“She started to experience innocent physical contact. There was a specific point when it changed completely from anything that could be perceived as innocent.
“These things were happening both in his home, in her home, becoming more frequent, and she is also quite clearly told, ‘This is something that you cannot talk about. Do not tell anybody about this. This is our little secret. I am a powerful person, I have money, so tread carefully’.
“She was having to carry this incredible secret, this incredible sense of guilt and disgust and hatred.”
A number of other women make claims of “degrading and awful” treatment by Harris over decades.
Karen Gardner as a girlThey have waived their right to anonymity to describe how his alleged behaviour impacted on them, and the pressures that finally forced them to come forward to testify in court.
Karen Gardner, who met Harris on TV show Star Games in 1977 when she was 16, says he assaulted her three times in the space of 35 minutes.
She tells the programme: “He said something, which still makes me feel sick now. He said to me, ‘You’re irresistible.’ I was 16. He was 48. He was 10 years older than my dad.”
Harris was acquitted of assaulting Ms Gardner, now a BBC journalist, after the jury failed to reach a verdict.
Former family friend Chris Brosnan recalls he once pulled over his car and shouted at Harris when he remarked that he wanted to sleep with young schoolgirls they had driven past.
He also remembers noticing resentment from daughter Bindi towards Harris. Brosnan, known to the family as Bear, says: “I was privy to far more predatory behaviour than a lot of other people. There was this shadow that began to creep in more and more and more.
Karen Gardner in new documentary“I ended up promoting Rolf as an artist as well as playing in the band... being somebody organising shows.
“I started to notice resentment from Bindi towards her dad. She said it was to do with his behaviour toward one of her friends, something that her friend had revealed to her.
“And to tell you the truth I didn’t want to expand on it, I didn’t want to say ‘well what do you mean?’ I knew what she meant.
“I actually took it up with Rolf and he looked at me, cut me off, and he said ‘Bear, we’ve all made mistakes in life. And I’ve made some pretty big mistakes and let’s just leave it there’.”
In June 2014, Harris was found guilty of 12 counts of indecently assaulting four girls in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
In court, Bindi Harris admitted learning about her father and Victim A in the late 1990s, but claimed Victim A was 18 and the relationship was consensual.
Harris was convicted of 12 counts of sexual assault, one of which was later overturned. He was released in May 2017 after serving three years of a five-year, nine-month sentence.
He now lives in Berkshire with his wife of 64 years, Alwen Hughes, who has Alzheimer’s disease. Last October he was “gravely sick” according to friends and neighbours.
Harris, now 93, has not spoken out publicly since his release but provided a statement for a book last year saying he was “convicted of offences I did not commit”. The Mirror approached his representative for comment.
* Two-part documentary Rolf Harris: Hiding In Plain Sight is released on ITVX on May 18.
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