Rolf Harris Visited Broadmoor With Jimmy Savile

The Fall Of One Of Britain's Best-Loved Stars

Updated: 6:09pm UK, Monday 30 June 2014

By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter

Despite being born in Australia, Rolf Harris' lengthy career in show business, spanning almost six decades, has ensured he is one of Britain's best-known and, until now, best-loved stars.

From his humble beginnings as a swimming champion in his native Western Australia, he moved to London in 1952 after deciding to abandon a teaching career and study art instead.

Within weeks he was singing in ex-pat clubs and two years after stepping off a liner, he signed a contract with the BBC which marked the start of a lengthy association with the broadcaster.

Artist, singer-songwriter and TV star, his legendary career earned him an MBE, OBE and CBE and Australian honours as well.

He was given a BAFTA fellowship, painted a portrait of the Queen and has met other members of the royal family countless times.

Harris also made numerous TV commercials and appeared at Glastonbury six times - opening the event in 2010 - and singing in front of a crowd of almost 100,000.

Countless generations of children and adults know him through iconic programmes from the 70s, 80s and 90s, such as The Rolf Harris Show, Rolf Harris Cartoon Time, Animal Hospital and Rolf On Art.

His wife of 56 years, Alwen, and daughter Bindi, 49, supported him in court throughout the seven-week trial, although only Bindi was called to give evidence in the case.

She described how she wanted to ''stab herself with forks'' after discovering Harris had been having a relationship with her best friend, who was the subject of seven of the charges.

In his 2001 autobiography, titled after his catchphrase "Can You Tell What It Is Yet", there is a telling passage in which he explained his feelings about his family.

He wrote: ''Alwen and Bindi have to come first. It has only been in the last five years that I have realised this. Late, but better than never.''

Telling, because it was in 1997 Harris wrote to the father of Bindi's best friend to tell him of the affair he had been having with his daughter when his own daughter found out.

He also wrote of how, as his career took off in the 60s, he found himself ogling women in backstage dressing rooms set aside for dancers he worked with.

Harris wrote: ''I tried not to watch - or be seen watching - but it wasn't easy, I spent most of my time reading the same page of a book 14 times realising I was holding it upside down.''

It's also clear he had a difficult relationship with his daughter and wife - blaming himself for not being with them as he devoted his time to his career - leaving them a painful second.

In the early 1960s as his career hit the big time, Alwen visited Australia with him and it later emerged she had contemplated suicide, Harris only finding out about it 30 years later when he found her diary.

Harris described how ''the words struck me like hammer blows'' adding that he ''felt terrible and I kicked myself for my selfishness''.

His awards and honours count for nothing and he will now swap his luxury Thames-side home in Berkshire for the cold harsh surroundings of a prison cell, as a convicted sex offender.

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Murderer And Violent Prisoner On The Run

Police are hunting a murderer and another violent criminal after they absconded from an open prison in Buckinghamshire.

Darren Douglas, 46, and Ricardo Dunn, 32, left HM Spring Hill open prison in Grendon Underwood, Buckinghamshire, on Sunday.

Douglas, originally from Birmingham, is serving a life sentence for murder after stabbing a man to death outside a pub in 1998.

Dunn, from Burnley, was convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent after assaulting a man in the street in 2009.

He is serving an indeterminate sentence.

Chief inspector Olly Wright, of Thames Valley Police, said: "We are keen to speak to anyone who may have seen these men in the area and can provide us with information about their movements.

"These men were both convicted for violent offences and I would advise anyone who sees them, to not approach them and call police immediately.

"Both men have links with other areas so may have travelled out of the Thames Valley to those areas. I would like to remind people that it is a criminal offence to harbour these men and anyone caught doing so would be arrested."

"Skullcracker" Michael Wheatley absconded from HMP Standford Hill

The issue of prisoners walking out of open prisons has been in the spotlight since "Skullcracker" Michael Wheatley went on the run.

In May, the 55-year-old sparked a nationwide manhunt after he absconded from Category D jail HMP Standford Hill on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent.

The prolific armed robber - dubbed the "Skullcracker" for pistol-whipping innocent bystanders during raids - went on to rob a building society in Surrey.

He was already serving 13 life sentences for a string of raids when he disappeared, sparking a political row over the day release of dangerous criminals.

After being caught, he was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court to life behind bars and told he will serve at least 10 years before being eligible for parole.

It has also emerged that two prisoners, Scott Callaghan, 35, and Billy Harkins, 29, disappeared from the same prison on Saturday.

Callaghan is serving a sentence for perverting the course of justice and Harkins for aggravated burglary, Kent Police said.

Last month Sussex Police revealed that 89 prisoners had gone missing since the 1970s from Ford open prison and are still unaccounted for.

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Data Roaming Charges Cut By More Than Half

By Tom Cheshire, Technology Correspondent

The cost of accessing the internet on your phone abroad in EU countries falls by more than half today, with a new cap on data roaming charges.

The tariff, introduced by the European Commission, limits the price of one megabyte of data to 20 cents (16p) – a 55% decrease from this time last year.

Mobile providers must also offer travellers reduced text messages at 5p, incoming calls at 4p per minute and outgoing calls at 15p  per minute.

However, British travellers will still pay considerably more abroad than at home.

In the UK, data costs around £10 per gigabyte. Under the new cap, a gigabyte downloaded abroad would cost £42.

The price cut comes before a major telecoms reform, due to take effect from December 15 next year.

Under the reforms, data roaming will be scrapped altogether in the EU and accessing internet data on a smartphone will cost as much abroad in the EU as in the UK.

The changes have been agreed by the commission and now must be ratified by EU member states.

Neeli Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission, said: "This huge drop in data roaming prices will make a big difference to all of us this summer.

"But it is not enough. Why should we have roaming charges at all in a single market? By the end of this year I hope we see the complete end of roaming charges agreed."

Some operators have warned that scrapping roaming could cost the telecoms industry £5.6bn before 2020.

But other mobile operators including Three have pressed ahead, offering free roaming in many EU countries, well in advance of the new rules.

The new rates apply only to EU member states – countries like Switzerland and Turkey are not affected, nor are countries outside Europe.

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Madeleine McCann: Search Dogs Back In Portugal

Search dogs are back in Portugal as part of the search for Madeleine McCann and it is thought a new search is set to begin.

British police have already returned to the country to question a number of suspects as part of the investigation into her disappearance from resort of Praia da Luz in 2007.

They will speak to a key witness, as well as several individuals suspected of carrying out burglaries, as part of the second phase of the Scotland Yard probe on the ground in the Algarve.

Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt has said he understands this will include former workers from the Ocean Club where Madeleine vanished.

The same team of British police who were involved in the digging of several sites outside Praia da Luz earlier in June arrived back in Portugal on Monday.

More follows...

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Four Men Arrested Over Gang Rape In Slough

Four men have been arrested over the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl who was attacked at a secluded nature spot in Slough.

Two men aged 33 were arrested along with a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old.

The two 33-year-olds were bailed until August 3, Thames Valley Police said, while the other two men remained in custody.

The teenager was raped in woods near the Jubilee River in the Berkshire town on Friday.

She had apparently met a group of men earlier in the day and shopped at an off-licence with one of them.

The two of them then walked along Spackmans Way before following a footpath into woods near Jubilee River, police said.

Once there, they were met by four other men from the original group, who were in a silver car, and the girl was raped by "several of the men".

On Sunday, Detective Inspector Nicola Hurdley called for anyone who had seen anything to get in touch with police.

She said: "I would like to speak to anyone who may have seen these men in the Chalvey area last night, around early evening, and who may have seen them driving around in a small silver car.

"All the men are described as being Asian."

Anyone with information should contact the police on 101.

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Mortgage Approvals Fall To 11-Month Low

UK mortgage approvals have dropped to their lowest level since June last year, according to the Bank of England (BoE).

It said 61,707 loans were agreed in May, down from the April figure of 62,806.

The May figure was a fifth below January's peak of 76,000.

Those loans totalled £15bn, which was also the lowest since June 2013.

New capping rules, known as the Mortgage Market Review (MMR), were brought in at the end of April to ensure borrowers have sufficient ability to increase repayments if rates rise.

Under MMR, lenders have been forced to increase their scrutiny of potential customers.

Applicants are asked detailed questions about their spending habits, such as gym fees, monthly expenditure on toiletries, and the ratio of fresh produce to other food types.

Would-be customers are also quizzed on what they consider to be essential and non-essential outgoings.

Meanwhile, the total amount of consumer credit continued to rise in May compared to April, up 13% to £740m.

But the net change in credit card lending dropped by more than half in May.

April's £428m new credit card lending plunged to £182m in May, possibly because people decided to clear outstanding debt ahead of applying for a mortgage.

On the weekend, homeowners were told to expect interest rates returning to their pre-recession levels within a decade.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News, BoE deputy governor Sir Charlie Bean, the Bank's longest-serving senior policy maker, said that this lower rate was only caused by a range of temporary factors.

Last week bank Governor Mark Carney suggested that even once borrowing costs rise, the "new normal" for them to settle at would be around 2.5% - significantly lower than the long-term average of 4-5%.

However Sir Charlie said that in the "long term", meaning beyond five or ten years, it could easily rise again towards 5% - the level traditionally considered "neutral".

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Coulson And Goodman To Face Bribery Retrial

By Mark White, Home Affairs Correspondent

The Prime Minister's former communications director Andy Coulson is facing further court action after the Crown Prosecution Service ruled he will face a retrial on charges he conspired to bribe public officials.

The 46-year-old, who was editor of the News of the World until his resignation in 2007, will be tried alongside the Sunday tabloid's former royal editor Clive Goodman.

Last week a jury failed to reach verdicts on the two men, who the Crown alleges conspired together to pay royal protection police officers for copies of royal phone directories.

The prosecution in the eight-month-long Old Bailey trial claimed Coulson and Goodman wanted the phone directories for the purposes of phone hacking - charges both men deny.

However, the jury found Coulson guilty of conspiring with others to intercept voicemail communications (phone hacking).

His co-accused, former News of the World editor and News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, was found not guilty of phone hacking, as was the tabloid's former managing editor Stuart Kuttner.

Rebekah Brooks was found not guilty of phone hacking

Mrs Brooks was also cleared of other charges that she attempted to bribe public officials for stories and attempted to pervert the course of justice, by hiding evidence that may have been useful to Scotland Yard detectives investigating the phone hacking allegations.

Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC said: "The CPS has taken the decision to proceed with the retrial."

Coulson was in court to hear the retrial decision, as his defence team prepare for two days of mitigation proceedings ahead of his sentencing on the phone hacking conviction on Friday.

He was joined in the dock by private detective Glenn Mulcaire and four former News of the World journalists, who have all admitted their part in phone hacking at hearings before the trial began.

Mr Edis told the court: "Between them these defendants utterly corrupted this newspaper which became at the highest level a criminal enterprise."

Clockwise from left: Evans, Thurlbeck, Coulson, Weatherup, Mulcaire, Miskiw

He went on: "This was systemic misconduct approved and participated in by the editor himself."

Coulson and the other defendants face the prospect of up to two years behind bars.

In court alongside Coulson and Mulcaire are former colleagues Neville Thurlbeck, Greg Miskiw and James Weatherup, who have all admitted their part in phone hacking.

A sixth defendant, former News of the World reporter Dan Evans, was told he will be sentenced at a later date.

He testified during the trial and told the court he was hired by Coulson, in part because of his phone hacking skills.

He also claimed phone hacking was an "open secret" at the News of the World where "even the office cat knew about it".

Mr Edis told Monday's hearing he would be seeking court costs from the defendants totalling a combined sum of £750,000.

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Car Hits Schoolgirls On Pavement: One Dead

A 14-year-old girl has died and two others have been injured after being hit by a car on their way to school in Witney, Oxfordshire.

The crash, which also injured a fourth male pedestrian, happened just after 8am in Curbridge Road.

The 18-year-old driver of the Citroen has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

Those hit were taken to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where the girl was pronounced dead.

An air ambulance has been scrambled to the scene.

A Thames Valley Police spokeswoman said the road is likely to be shut in both directions for some time as inquiries continue.

Speaking at the scene, Inspector Paul Winks told the Oxford Mail: "It appears the Citroen Saxo has mounted the pavement, hit the male first and he is seriously injured.

"It has then struck either two or three of the girls.

"This is a truly horrific incident and the driver has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and will be interviewed by police.

"Special family liaison officers will be talking to the family of the schoolgirl who was killed as a result of this incident.

"I would appeal to anybody who has any information or witnessed this collision to call the police on 101."

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All Staff Get Rights To Work From Home

By Emma Birchley, Sky News correspondent

The right to request flexible working arrangements is about to be extended to apply to all staff and not just parents and carers.

From Monday, workers who have been in their job for six months will be able to ask for flexitime, to job share or to work from home.

The change will extend flexible working rights to around 20 million people.

Many businesses who already offer it say it increases staff motivation and productivity and reduces absence.

Workers may be able to avoid painful commutes to work

It has been an option for all employees at the small advertising agency Osbornenash in Norwich since they set up three years ago - and it has paid off.

Managing director Carole Osborne said: "For us as a business it has helped because we want to be able to recruit the best staff that we possibly can ... it's important that we are flexible around their lives and then also that they can be flexible around what we as a business offer our clients."

The company's senior art director, Neil Wright, has two young daughters and is able to change his hours to suit his family life.

"Obviously family is important to everyone particularly having two children and my wife also works full time," he said.

"It's very valuable to be able to balance life and work equally."

The team at Osbornenash support flexi hours

But employment lawyer Fraser Younson, a partner at Squire Patton Boggs, fears it could leave bosses with tough decisions about whose request to prioritise.

Flexibility will not be an option for all businesses and there are various grounds on which they can reject an application.

Christopher Soule, from the Federation of Small Businesses, said that one reason might be if the request worked out as too expensive for the employee's company.

But Mr Soule believes that many companies will embrace the opportunities.

"About 70% of our members already do some kind of flexible working," he said.

"It will make people think about whether it will help their business and improve their business and improve their staff relations."

Workers will have the right to appeal if the decision does not go their way and apply again 12 months later.

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England Fan Bites Supporter's Ear Off In Brazil

Police are hunting an England fan who bit another fan's ear off after the national side's World Cup defeat against Uruguay.

The victim was left with half his left ear ripped off and bloodied in the attack, police have confirmed.

The attack happened before Uruguay and Liverpool striker Luis Suarez bit an Italian player, which led to him being banned.

But details of the fan's attack have only just emerged.

Video footage obtained by the Sunday People appeared to show the moment the attack took place on the top tier of the Arena Corinthians.

Several men can be seen in a melee before one is led away by stewards.

When asked what happened, the victim appears to tell the camera: "He bit off my ear."

Blood can be seen dripping down his neck but he continues to smile and laugh.

Luis Suarez consoles England captain Steven Gerrard after the game

Former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore tweeted that he had seen the footage and claimed it would be "the biggest story in the UK, especially who did it".

Chief Superintendent Rachel Barber said: "We were made aware during the England vs Uruguay match in Sao Paulo that an incident had taken place which resulted in an England fan having a portion of his ear bitten off by another England fan.

"In the immediate aftermath, we managed to make contact with the victim and offered advice and support.

"The day after the attack, the victim chose to make a formal complaint to the local police, and they opened an investigation."

No arrests have been made yet but interviews with witnesses gave police a name for the alleged attacker, Ms Barber said.

Police went to England's final match against Costa Rica in Belo Horizonte in case the assailant travelled to the match but did not find him there.

Chief Superintendent Barber added: "Efforts are ongoing to identify the suspect and bring him to justice either in the UK or, if possible, back in Brazil where the offence occurred."

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are aware of an incident in Sao Paulo on June 19 involving a British national and we provided consular assistance."

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GPs Who Miss Cancer 'To Be Named And Shamed'

GPs who repeatedly fail to spot signs of cancer in their patients may be named and shamed, it has been reported.

Surgeries will be marked out with a red flag on an NHS website for patients if they are deemed to be missing too many cases.

Doctors will also be red-flagged if patients have to make repeated visits before being referred for tests, according to the Mail on Sunday.

Practices will be given a green rating on the NHS Choices site if they have quick referral times for patients who show possible signs of having the disease.

Jeremy Hunt says surgeries could "do much better" with cancer diagnosis

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said tough action must be taken to bring standards at surgeries with poor cancer referral rates into line with those with highest standards.

"We need to do much better," he told the newspaper.

"Cancer diagnosis levels around the country vary significantly and we must do much more to improve both the level of diagnosis and to bring those GP practices with poor referral rates up to the standards of the best."

A survey of 70,000 patients showed that one in 10 cancer sufferers had to see their GP at least five times before being referred to hospital to be diagnosed.

More than a quarter had seen their GP at least three times before being sent to a specialist.

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Sir Elton Says Jesus Would Back Gay Marriage

Sir Elton John has revealed plans for a "very quiet" wedding - and said he believes Jesus Christ would support gay priests getting married.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News, the star told Dermot Murnaghan he hopes to marry David Furnish some time next year and that it would be a low-key affair.

He also revealed his thoughts about the Pope - describing him as a "wonderful" man whose tolerance was an example to the Church of England.

Sir Elton shares his thoughts with Dermot Murnaghan

The entertainer also spoke about the launch of a new fund to support the training of young athletes determined to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics.

He said he hoped a concert, performed for the charity SportsAid at Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire last night, would raise £500,000 for the fund.

Sir Elton told Murnaghan that the global fight for gay rights was stalling and that he planned to talk with Vladimir Putin in Russia on the subject in November.

Sir Elton performs at Stoke Park for SportsAid

"Globally, we seem to have gone backwards over the last 18 months," Sir Elton said.

"I will see Putin and talk to him - I don't know what good it will do though."

Discussing gay rights, he said that the Church of England might learn from the humility and tolerance of Pope Francis.

"The new Pope has been wonderful, he's excited me so much," Sir Elton said.

"He's stripped it [the Church] down to the bare bones and said it's all basically about love."

Sir Elton hopes to marry David Furnish next year

Sir Elton agreed that gay clergy should be allowed to get married and suggested that the celibacy vow for Catholic priests be abolished.

"These are old and stupid things. If Jesus Christ was alive today, I cannot see him, as the Christian person that he was and the great person that he was, saying this could not happen.

"He was all about love and compassion and forgiveness and trying to bring people together and that's what the church should be about."

Asked about his own wedding, he said: "I don't think we can get married until next year.

"However, when we do do, it will be very quiet and off the cuff - we had our big shebang when we had our civil union."

Sir Elton also described the Glastonbury festival as the ultimate music event - but said he had never been asked to perform there.

Murnaghan spoke to Sir Elton at the concert for SportsAid at Stoke Park. The aim of it was to create a new athlete fund that will help young people who hope to represent Great Britain at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Sir Elton, who has been involved in the charity since its creation in the 1970s, explained how he hopes to create Britain's next Olympians.

He hoped the money raised would mean "for the next eight years 20 kids will get a grant of £2,000 that they normally couldn't get.

"It is just a way of supplementing their incomes and giving them hope for the future," he said.

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