Rolf Harris jury to resume deliberations

The jurors in the Rolf Harris indecent assault trial could take more than a week of deliberations before a verdict is know.

The jury in Rolf Harris's indecent assault trial will resume its deliberations on Friday for a second day.

After a six week trial, Justice Nigel Sweeney urged the 12 jurors on Thursday to "not feel under any pressure of time at all."

It's thought the jury could take more than a week to deliver its verdicts.

Harris is charged with 12 counts of indecent assault against four girls in the UK between 1968 and 1986.

Another six women have given supporting evidence that the artist abused them in Australia, New Zealand and Malta between 1969 and 1991.

Earlier in the week, Justice Sweeney urged the jury to be calm and careful when considering the evidence and then have the courage to deliver true verdicts "whatever the consequences".

Each charge carries a maximum sentence of two years' jail.

Harris denies touching any of the women inappropriately.

His defence team says the entertainer has been publicly humiliated and had his good reputation trashed, but the prosecution failed to prove he assaulted anyone.

Lawyer Simon Ray told the court this week that "making allegations loudly and forcefully does not make them true".

Prosecutor Sasha Wass QC, however, has urged the jury to find Harris guilty on the basis that 10 alleged victims gave "chillingly similar accounts".

The main complainant is a childhood friend of Harris's daughter, Bindi.

She claims the entertainer first abused her in 1978 when, aged 13, she joined the family on an overseas holiday.

Harris insists the pair had a consensual "affair" which started in 1983 when his daughter's friend was 18. He was 53 at the time.


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