Rolf Harris charged

The long arm of the Old Bill has reached out and collared Australian entertainment icon Rolf Harris; the Herald reports:

Television presenter and entertainer Rolf Harris has been charged with indecently assaulting two teenage girls and making indecent images of a child.
The 83-year-old will appear in court next month facing nine counts of indecent assault dating back to the 1980s and four of making indecent images from last year, police and prosecutors said.
Mr Harris, of Maidenhead, Berkshire, was first arrested in November last year by detectives on the Jimmy Savile child abuse inquiry, Operation Yewtree, but his identity was not publicly revealed for months.
Police do not reveal names of people it arrests, and Mr Harris was known only as "Yewtree Five" until April, while other suspects were swiftly identified through lawyers, agents or neighbours.
Alison Saunders, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the charges were imposed after lawyers agreed there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and it was in the public interest.
"We have carefully considered the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police Service as part of Operation Yewtree in relation to Rolf Harris.

"Having completed our review, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Harris to be charged with nine counts of indecent assault and four of making indecent images of a child.
"The alleged indecent assaults date from 1980 to 1986 and relate to two complainants aged 14 and 15 at the time of the alleged offending."
The Australian-born entertainer will appear at Westminster magistrates court on September 23. The DJ, Dave Lee Travis, and PR guru Max Clifford, have already appeared in court after charges were laid in connection with the Yewtree inquiry.

As we are heading to Australia today, it will be interesting to see the reaction over there where Harris is revered.

He is, of course, entitled to be considered innocent until such time as he has been proven guilty, but the comments above from the CPS are ominous; they would not formally charge someone like Harris unless they were supremely confident that a conviction will result.