Rolf Harris: 'Revolting' song calling victims money-grabbing 'wenches' should affect his parole, says victims' lawyer
Liz Dux said Harris’ comments showing a lack of comprehension of the effect of his actions should affect his application for early release
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Your support makes all the difference.The lawyer representing the victims of convicted paedophile Rolf Harris has said the disgraced entertainer should be denied parole, following reports of a song penned in jail that called his victims money-grabbing “wenches”.
But Liz Dux, who is representing the victims, told the BBC that the song showed Harris had “no comprehension” of his crimes, and that his comments “should certainly effect” the way he is treated when he makes his parole application.
The song lyrics, written in a letter seen by the Mail on Sunday, referred to his victims as “slimy little woodworm” trying to get their “hooks into his dough”.
“Perhaps you believe you’re pretty still, some perfumed sultry wench,” he wrote, followed by “Make him burn, burn, burn. Come and join the feeding frenzy, girls,” the letter stated.
The song should be sung to a country-rock tune, Harris wrote to his friend, adding that he planned on recording it the “minute” he was released from jail, which he expected to be in late 2017.
In addition to the song, Harris claimed in his letter that “prison is no hardship really,” describing his life in the art room as an assistant to the tutor, which leaves him “basically doing what I like”.
Dux told the BBC the “revolting” song had already caused one of Harris’ victims to become “totally distraught”, adding that if the letter proved to be real then it shows he has “no comprehension” of the effect he has had on his victims.
“It should certainly affect the way he’s treated when he applies for early release – he hasn’t understood the severity of his crimes,” she said.
Harris’ friend was reportedly appalled with the former TV star’s sentiment when they received the letter, and decided to hand it to the Mail on Sunday, the newspaper reported.
Harris was found guilty of 12 indecent assaults which took place between 1968 and 1986 against girls as young as seven at London’s Southwark Crown Court last July, and is currently serving a six year sentence.
The sentencing judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, told Harris he had shown “no remorse” for his crimes at the time.
“Your reputation lies in ruins, you have been stripped of your honours, but you have no one to blame but yourself,” he said.
A Change.org petition has been started calling for a judicial review into what supporters have called the “biased” trial of Harris last summer. It has been signed by Harris’ daughter, Bindi Nicholls.
But it emerged last month that a “full file” of evidence against Harris had been presented to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), and that the paedophile had been interviewed under caution by police as part of Operation Yewtree.