Not only do Rolf Harris' victims feel he robbed part of their childhood, the countless youngsters who looked up to him as an entertainer are also left with a sense of betrayal.
Generations of Australian and British children grew up watching the 84-year-old's wobbleboard antics on TV, wishing they could dash out a drawing as quickly and effortlessly as he could, and later as adults fondly reminisced about his "daggy uncle" persona.
Now left feeling duped, they've taken to social media in droves to express their dismay, shock and disbelief.
One man tweeted: "What has the world come to? If you can't trust #RolfHarris then who can you trust?"
Another man wrote: "Rolf Harris is a sex offender! I'm gonna cry."
Many tweeters asked "Who's next?", wondering if any more of their childhood heroes would disappoint them.
Comedian Russell Brand took to YouTube, saying the Harris case had torn a hole "in the fabric of understandable narrative".
"It sort of makes you feel despair, doesn't it, because in one way, there's something inherently comedic about Rolf Harris - he was always seen in such a light-hearted context: silly shirts, silly instruments, silly frivolous drawings around children, adolescents, novelty songs.
"There was nothing about him that was serious.
"You can't get any joy out of it because look at Rolf now - he's just a pathetic old guy. You can't go `good!'.
"You have to revise your own childhood, an integral part of your life. You have to revise your narrative.
"It's like a graffiti over our consciousness ... graffiti over our sense of what's real.
"No sense can be made out of it."
Media personality Derryn Hinch was characteristically blunt, dubbing Harris "The King of Sleaze" and a "disgusting fraud".
