Rolf Harris Visited Broadmoor With Jimmy Savile

The Fall Of One Of Britain's Best-Loved Stars

Updated: 6:09pm UK, Monday 30 June 2014

By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter

Despite being born in Australia, Rolf Harris' lengthy career in show business, spanning almost six decades, has ensured he is one of Britain's best-known and, until now, best-loved stars.

From his humble beginnings as a swimming champion in his native Western Australia, he moved to London in 1952 after deciding to abandon a teaching career and study art instead.

Within weeks he was singing in ex-pat clubs and two years after stepping off a liner, he signed a contract with the BBC which marked the start of a lengthy association with the broadcaster.

Artist, singer-songwriter and TV star, his legendary career earned him an MBE, OBE and CBE and Australian honours as well.

He was given a BAFTA fellowship, painted a portrait of the Queen and has met other members of the royal family countless times.

Harris also made numerous TV commercials and appeared at Glastonbury six times - opening the event in 2010 - and singing in front of a crowd of almost 100,000.

Countless generations of children and adults know him through iconic programmes from the 70s, 80s and 90s, such as The Rolf Harris Show, Rolf Harris Cartoon Time, Animal Hospital and Rolf On Art.

His wife of 56 years, Alwen, and daughter Bindi, 49, supported him in court throughout the seven-week trial, although only Bindi was called to give evidence in the case.

She described how she wanted to ''stab herself with forks'' after discovering Harris had been having a relationship with her best friend, who was the subject of seven of the charges.

In his 2001 autobiography, titled after his catchphrase "Can You Tell What It Is Yet", there is a telling passage in which he explained his feelings about his family.

He wrote: ''Alwen and Bindi have to come first. It has only been in the last five years that I have realised this. Late, but better than never.''

Telling, because it was in 1997 Harris wrote to the father of Bindi's best friend to tell him of the affair he had been having with his daughter when his own daughter found out.

He also wrote of how, as his career took off in the 60s, he found himself ogling women in backstage dressing rooms set aside for dancers he worked with.

Harris wrote: ''I tried not to watch - or be seen watching - but it wasn't easy, I spent most of my time reading the same page of a book 14 times realising I was holding it upside down.''

It's also clear he had a difficult relationship with his daughter and wife - blaming himself for not being with them as he devoted his time to his career - leaving them a painful second.

In the early 1960s as his career hit the big time, Alwen visited Australia with him and it later emerged she had contemplated suicide, Harris only finding out about it 30 years later when he found her diary.

Harris described how ''the words struck me like hammer blows'' adding that he ''felt terrible and I kicked myself for my selfishness''.

His awards and honours count for nothing and he will now swap his luxury Thames-side home in Berkshire for the cold harsh surroundings of a prison cell, as a convicted sex offender.

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'Hamas Will Pay': Bodies Of Three Teens Found

The bodies of three Israeli teenagers who went missing in the occupied West Bank earlier this month have been found.

The discovery was made near the village of Halhul, close to where 16-year-olds Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Shaar and 19-year-old Eyal Yifrach disappeared on June 12.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking before a three-hour meeting of his security cabinet, said: "Hamas is responsible. Hamas will pay."

He added the teenagers "were kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by wild beasts".

Since the discovery there have been a number of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, including on the southern city of Khan Younis. There have been no reports of injuries.

Any Israeli action to punish Hamas for the alleged murders would open "the gates of hell," a spokesman said.

A military build-up was reported in Hebron after the discovery

"If the occupiers carry out an escalation or a war, they will open the gates of hell on themselves." 

Israel has accused the Palestinian group of abducting the youths as they were hitch-hiking home near Hebron late at night.

But Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, has denied it was involved in their disappearance.

There has reportedly been a large build-up of troops in Halhul, where security forces and Palestinians are said to have clashed.

A spokesman for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said they were "incidents of stone throwing, nothing more".

The teenagers' bodies were found buried under rocks in a field a few miles north of Hebron.

There have been airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since the bodies were found

The trio had apparently been shot soon after they were taken, according to security officials.

Binyamin Proper, who was among a group of volunteers that found the bodies, told Channel 2 TV a member of the search party "saw something suspicious on the ground, plants that looked out of place, moved them and moved some rocks and then found the bodies".

"We realised it was them and we called the army," he said.

US President Barack Obama condemned the deaths as a "senseless act of terror against innocent youth" and British Prime Minister David Cameron said it was an "appalling and inexcusable act of terror".

The bodies were found near Halhul, north of Hebron

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it a "heinous act by enemies of peace".

Dozens of Palestinians have been detained in the search for Mr Frenkel from Nof Ayalon, who had dual Israeli-American citizenship, Mr Shaar from Telman and Mr Yifrach from Elad.

Among those held were a number of Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament and several prisoners recently released by Israel.

Sky's Tom Rayner, reporting from Jerusalem, said Israeli authorities "do not believe they (the youths) have been held for any period of time as hostages. They believe they were killed very quickly".

The teenagers were all students at a Yeshiva, or religious school, in Gush Etzion, a Jewish settlement bloc just south of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.

Mr Netanyahu had said the alleged abductions were the result of this month's power-sharing deal between the Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah.

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Policy Chief Hits Out At Miliband's Leadership

Ed Miliband's leadership could be in trouble ahead of the next general election, according to a senior figure in the Labour party.

The head of Labour's policy review has admitted the party's recent statements on welfare are "cynical" and designed for "focus groups".

The critical comments by Jon Cruddas were made at a meeting of a left-wing think tank. A recording of the comments has been obtained by Sky News.

In the recordings, Mr Cruddas says: "My job is to look at Labour's policy agenda ... and I can assure you that these interesting ideas and remedies are not going to emerge through Labour's policy review right - irrespective of whether we want them to or not.

"And we have to learn how, why they aren't. And this example, this week is a really interesting one where we set up independent reviews to rethink social policy, economic policy, democracy, local government - they come up with ideas and they're just parked, parked.

"And instead ... cynical nuggets of policy to chime with our focus groups and our press strategies and our desire for a topline in terms of the 24-hour media cycle dominate."

Mr Cruddas warned that the "clock is ticking" for Labour and raised fears about interesting ideas being "parked".

Mr Miliband's leadership has been called into question

The comments come as Labour prepares to set out its vision for rebuilding Britain through major reforms of the state and big business in a series of events over the next week.

Responding to the comments, a Labour spokesperson said: "Ed Miliband and Jon Cruddas helped the IPPR [Institute for Public Policy Research] unveil its independent Condition of Britain report because they back the key principles behind it: strengthening institutions, rewarding hard work and handing power back to the people.

"We support some of its key recommendations to ensure young people sign up for training not sign on for benefits or raising JSA [Jobseeker's Allowance] for people who have paid in all their life.

"These go alongside the most radical plans for generations; from getting 200,000 homes built a year, raising the minimum wage, reforming the energy market, to devolving economic power to our great cities once again, these plans will help build a Britain that once again works for working people."

Sky's Political Correspondent Sophy Ridge said: "This story is significant because of who is giving the comments.

"Jon Cruddas is the head of Labour's policy review. That's a senior position - it means he's effectively in charge of the way Labour formulates its proposals ahead of the next election.

"What he is specifically saying is that he is concerned the way Labour is making policies is not really working for the party."

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Radical Islamic Preacher Seeks Asylum In UK

The family of Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad are applying for his asylum in the UK after claiming he had been tortured in Lebanon.

They say the radical preacher has suffered systematic torture while in custody at a maximum security prison.

The family say he should be allowed back into Britain on "humanitarian grounds" as his health has deteriorated and he is no longer able to walk.

Mohammad left the UK in 2005 and was barred from returning

The cleric caused outrage in the wake of the 2005 London bombings after saying he would not inform police if he knew Muslims were planning attacks.

He left the UK in 2005 and was told he would not be allowed to return.

But the cleric's son, Mohammad Bakri, told Sky News: "I'm here on the humanitarian basis. At the end of the day, many people find what he says distasteful, and he quotes things from the Islamic perspective.

"But I think unless you know the character, himself, like my father - I grew up with him - so therefore I understand the tactics that he uses to attract the media in order to pass the message of Islam.

"You may find that distasteful, but at the end of the day he has not committed any crimes in the UK."

Sky's Home Affairs Correspondent Mark White said the family's claims have not been independently verified.

"The families of Omar Bakri Mohammad say that he has been transferred to a maximum security prison ... in Lebanon," he said.

"They also say that he has been systematically tortured during his time in that maximum security prison.

"We have no independent verification of this, but the family insists that he is in very poor health.

"They claim that he is actually close to death and they're seeking an urgent appeal now to the UK authorities to have him returned to the UK under asylum."

The preacher speaks in London alongside Abu Hamza in 1999

Mohammad holds Syrian and Lebanese citizenship and lived in Britain for 20 years, where he headed the now-disbanded radical Islamist group al Muhajiroun.

He was among 54 people sentenced in Lebanon in November 2010 in trials of militants who fought deadly clashes with the Lebanese army in 2007.

He was convicted of belonging to an armed group that aimed to carry out terrorist acts and plots to kill Lebanese soldiers.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "An individual must be physically present in the UK in order to make a claim for asylum.

"Omar Bakri Mohammad was permanently excluded from the UK in 2005 on the grounds that his presence is not conducive to the public good.

"As Omar Bakri Mohammad is excluded from the UK, he will be unable to make a claim for asylum."

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