Rolf Harris’ alleged victim Karen Gardner has described the moment the TV star ‘abused her’ when she was 16 and he was 48.
In new ITVX documentary Rolf Harris: Hiding in Plain Sight, Karen says the children’s entertainer assaulted her “three times in the space of 35 minutes”.
She has waived her right to anonymity to tell her story, describing how his alleged assaults impacted on her. Karen also reveals the pressures that finally forced her to come forward to testify against him in court.
The two-part documentary tells the extraordinary truth behind the rise and fall of former national treasure Rolf Harris. It uses rare archive and exclusive testimony from those closest to the trial.
Rolf Harris abuse victim Karen Gardner
Karen Gardner was one of several women who came forward to testify against Rolf Harris during his very public trial in 2014. He was subsequently convicted of the sexual assault of four underage girls.
His trial heard that one of the victims was a childhood friend of his daughter and another a young autograph hunter.
On 30 June 2014, a judge sentenced Rolf Harris to five years and nine months in prison on 12 counts of indecent assault on four female victims during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He was 84 at the time.
Judge Mr Justice Sweeney said the paedophile had taken advantage of his celebrity status and shown “no remorse”.
Karen Gardner’s written evidence formed part of the prosecution case in the trial of entertainer Rolf Harris. She claimed the TV star indecently assaulted her in 1977 in Cambridge.
What did Rolf Harris allegedly do to Karen Gardner?
The British public considered Rolf Harris a national treasure, thanks to his children’s TV shows including Rolf’s Cartoon Club. However, behind the scenes, he had an unhealthy interest in young girls.
In 1978, alleged victim Karen Gardner was 16 when she went along to the filming of the show Star Games in Cambridge, at which Harris was appearing. During Rolf Harris: Hiding in Plain Sight, she describes how she carried his bag for him.
She said: “For the first couple of hours, he was lovely. And you find yourself thinking, ‘Oh yeah, you know, that’s what Harris is like’.”
However, she claims he assaulted her three times in plain sight in the space of 35 minutes. She says: “He was paying me attention; he was saying how great I had been, and he hugged me, and that’s when it happened.”
She continues: “And it was humiliating and degrading and awful and your blood turns to concrete. You can’t believe this is happening. And I have no doubt what was happening. My period was due, and my breasts were very tender, and I had no doubt what he’d done was deliberate.”
Alleged Rolf Harris victim Karen Gardner goes on to say: “He said to me, ‘You’re irresistible.’ I was 16. He was 48. He was 10 years older than my dad.”
Was Rolf Harris convicted of abusing Karen Gardner?
A jury acquitted Rolf Harris of assaulting Karen Gardner after the jury could not reach a verdict at two trials.
Now a BBC reporter in Wiltshire, Karen waived her right to anonymity to talk about her experiences.
After Rolf was convicted of 12 indecent assaults, Karen Gardner revealed that her written evidence formed part of the prosecution case against Harris.
She went to the police when Rolf Harris tried to deny ever having been at the event. And she praised the way she was treated by the police.
The disgraced Australian entertainer was not charged over the alleged offences against Ms Gardner. However, he was found guilty of 12 counts of indecently assaulting four girls in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Rolf Harris: Hiding in Plain Sight on ITVX
Rolf Harris: Hiding in Plain Sight is a two-part documentary which is available to watch on ITVX from Thursday, May 18, 2023.
In a statement, ITVX says: “The two-part documentary tells the extraordinary truth behind the rise and fall of former national treasure Rolf Harris. It uses rare archive and exclusive testimony from those closest to the trial.
“Harris was loved and trusted as ‘the nation’s favourite uncle’. But behind closed doors he had been betraying his family and the British public that had grown up with him by sexually assaulting children and young women for years.”
Over a decade on from his arrest, Rolf Harris’ accusers tell the story of how his alleged assaults impacted on them. They also describe the pressures that finally forced them to come forward to testify against him in court.
As well as interviewing Karen Gardner, the documentary includes exclusive new testimony from one of Rolf Harris’ youngest known victims, known as Victim A.
The films tell the story of Harris’ decades-long grooming of his daughter Bindi’s childhood friend from the age of 13 and into adulthood. Victim A has given her psychotherapist Chip Somers the permission to talk about Rolf Harris’ abuse on her behalf.
Meanwhile, Australian make-up artist Suzi Dent claims Rolf Harris sexually assaulted her. She says the abuse occurred when she worked on a programme he appeared on in 1985.
With an elderly Rolf Harris now out of jail and back at home, and new allegations of abuse surfacing in Australia, the series asks important questions about how the criminal justice system deals with historical cases of sexual abuse. Do his accusers feel that they’ve got justice?
Read more: Former child entertainer and convicted paedophile Rolf Harris ‘led a toxic double-life’
Rolf Harris: Hiding in Plain Sight is available to watch on ITVX from from Thursday, May 18, 2023.
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