Harris Guilty Of Indecent Assaults

One of the victims was a childhood friend of his daughter, while another is believed to have been aged 7 or 8 years old when the offenses took place.

After a seven-week trial, the jury at Southwark Crown Court returned guilty verdicts on all counts June 30. The jury took 37 hours and 45 minutes before reaching its unanimous verdicts.

Harris, 84, will return to the Southwark court for sentencing July 4, when Mr Justice Sweeney has said that it’s “inevitable” he can expect a custodial sentence.

The verdict marks the highest-profile conviction achieved by officers from Scotland Yard’s “Operation Yewtree” team, which is the operation originally set up to investigate sexual abuse claims against former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile.

Central to the prosecution’s case was an allegation from the friend of Harris’s daughter, whom the court heard he molested between the ages of 13 and 19.

Prosecution sources confirmed to Sky News that dozens of other women have also come forward during the trial, claiming they too were assaulted by him and police are considering whether to bring further charges.

Prosecutor Sasha Wass described Harris as “a sinister pervert” who used his fame to get close to young women and girls, adding that he had a “dark side” and was a “’Jekyll and Hyde character.”

One piece of evidence was a letter written by Harris to the father of the main victim in 1997, after she had told her parents of the abuse she had suffered as a teenager.

Harris had written how he was in “a ‘state of abject self-loathing,” claiming that he was sickened by the misery he’d caused.

The Metropolitan Police said Harris “habitually denied” any wrongdoing and “thought his celebrity status placed him above the law.”