The disgraced entertainer’s conviction for indecently assaulting the youngster in 1969 was quashed
A woman who wrongly accused Rolf Harris of groping her when she was eight may have to pay back £22,000 she won from him in compensation.
The disgraced entertainer’s conviction for indecently assaulting the youngster in 1969 was quashed yesterday at the Court of Appeal.
But the 87-year-old lost his battle to clear his name completely as appeal judges upheld 11 convictions for sex attacks on three victims.
His lawyers had argued that he should be cleared of all charges as the jury at his first trial was ‘poisoned’ by the account of the woman who claimed to be his youngest victim.
Wendy Wild, who has waived her right to anonymity, claimed Harris had plunged his ‘big hairy hands’ between her legs, ‘aggressively’ fondled her twice, when she went to get his autograph at a community centre in Portsmouth.
But her stepfather told the Court of Appeal the assault could never have happened because he would not have let her go out alone when she was so young.
Police also said there was no evidence Harris had ever attended the centre and there was no record of his visit in local newspapers.
Detectives were so desperate to confirm her account that they handed out leaflets, made door-to-door inquiries and even made an appeal in a bingo hall, which resulted in an alleged witness coming forward.
David James told jurors at Harris’ trial that he too visited the community centre to get autographs for his children. But private investigators hired by Harris discovered Mr James was a ‘fantasist’ with convictions for dishonesty, who had previously bragged of fighting in the Korean War when in reality he was a long-distance lorry driver.
The overturned conviction dated back to 1969 and an event Harris was said to have attended
Lord Justice Treacy said the revelations about Mr James, who he referred to as a ‘Walter Mitty character’, was of ‘great significance’.
He added: ‘If Mr James is removed from the picture, [the victim] is left on her own in asserting an encounter with Mr Harris at the community centre in circumstances where there was a body of evidence to the contrary.’
Miss Wild, now 56, yesterday told the Mail she was ‘very upset’ by the appeal court’s decision.
She had previously complained that the compensation she received from the entertainer was too low saying it represented just 76p a day for ‘more than 40 years of nightmares he had caused her’.
But now Harris could ask for the money back after he was cleared of the attack yesterday. In May the artist, singer and presenter was formally cleared of molesting three other women.
Harris, who was freed from jail in May, was not in court today but attended an earlier hearing