Ulrika Jonsson says she was groped by disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris at 21
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lrika Jonsson has claimed the late disgraced Australian entertainer Rolf Harris groped her early on in her profession when he appeared as a visitor on a present she was engaged on.
Harris, who died on May 10 aged 93, was a household favorite for many years earlier than being convicted of a string of indecent assaults in June 2014.
In her column for The Sun newspaper on Saturday, Jonsson, 55, stated the incident allegedly occurred on a day when Harris was the showbiz visitor on the previous ITV breakfast programme TV-am the place she labored as a climate presenter on the time.
She wrote: “The studios were laid out such that it was impossible not to bump into guests during the live show.
“I felt quite enamoured to be introduced to him. This was Rolf Harris, for goodness sake.
“I reached out my hand and he chose instead to embrace me.
“I remember thinking that was either really flattering or a bit forward. Either way, it was confusing.
“Then his hand travelled down to my bum, gave it a few squeezes and stayed there for what felt like years but was probably only 30 seconds.
“But it was long enough for my 21-year-old self to feel deeply uncomfortable, and speechless.
“I know I won’t have been the only one who fell victim to his hands.”
The TV presenter added that folks “didn’t pipe up or call anyone out” right now round 35 years in the past, particularly in the event that they had been of a celeb standing.
“We may have come a long way in making that kind of behaviour unacceptable but we still have miles to travel”, she famous.
Following Harris’ loss of life, presenter Vanessa Feltz additionally stated she felt Harris “knew” she “couldn’t do anything” about him allegedly groping her dwell throughout a phase when she was presenting Channel 4’s morning discuss present The Big Breakfast – which beforehand aired from 1992 to 2002.
Recalling the incident on This Morning on Wednesday, Feltz stated “she could hear” her costume being “scrunched up” by Harris whereas she was the on-the-bed interviewer.
She added: “For all I knew I was the only person that had ever happened to, I didn’t know… Nobody had ever said a bad word about him in front of me.”
Feltz stated police went to her home in 2013 to ask about footage from the incident.
Harris was the second particular person convicted below the high-profile intercourse crime investigation Operation Yewtree, arrange within the wake of abuse claims made in opposition to late DJ and entertainer Jimmy Savile.
Harris was jailed for 5 years and 9 months after being convicted of 12 assaults which happened between 1968 and 1986.
Mr Justice Sweeney advised him: “Your reputation lies in ruins. You have been stripped of your honours and you have no-one to blame but yourself.”
In May 2017, Harris was formally cleared of 4 unconnected historic intercourse offences, which he had denied.
Later the identical 12 months, one of many 12 indecent assault convictions was overturned by the Court of Appeal.
On May 19 2017, Harris was launched on licence, lower than three years after his sentence started.
His loss of life certificates, filed at Maidenhead Town Hall and seen by the PA news company, lists the causes of loss of life as neck most cancers and “frailty of old age”.
Harris died at his house in Bray, Berkshire.