February 23, 2015
SYDNEY (AFP) - Disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris was Monday stripped of his Australian honours after being found guilty of sexually assaulting four girls in Britain.
The Australian television star, artist and songwriter was convicted last year of indecently assaulting the girls, who included the childhood best friend of his daughter Bindi, between 1969 and 1986.
The decision to take back his honours was gazetted by Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, Queen Elizabeth II's representative in Australia.
"It is notified for general information that the Governor-General has terminated the appointments of Officer and Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division, made to Mr. Rolf Harris," the notice said.
Harris was found guilty of 12 assaults against the four girls, who included an eight-year-old autograph hunter. He was jailed for five years and nine months.
"You have shown no remorse for your crimes at all," trial judge Nigel Sweeney said as he handed down his sentence.
Seven of the 12 counts related to Bindi's friend, including one incident when she was 15 where he seriously sexually assaulted her while his daughter slept in the adjacent bed.
Harris was the second person to be convicted under a wide-ranging police investigation set up in the wake of revelations that the late Jimmy Savile, a fellow major BBC star, was a prolific abuser.
His case caused widespread revulsion in Britain, where his television programmes were watched by millions of children, and in his homeland.
Harris is also a CBE under the British honours system -- one step below a knighthood -- and even painted the Queen's portrait to mark her 80th birthday.
