Rolf Harris granted bail on groping charges, to be released from jail
Australian entertainer Rolf Harris has been granted bail on groping charges and is set to be released from a UK jail on Friday.
The 87-year-old entertainer is on trial at Southwark Crown Court on four indecent assault charges involving three women who accused him of groping them when they were teenagers in 1971, 1978 and 1983.
He has been appearing by video link from Stafford Prison where he's been serving time for previous convictions from 2014, but from Monday will appear in person.
Judge Deborah Taylor told the jury of seven women and five men on Thursday that Harris would be released from Stafford on Friday after she approved an application for bail on the current charges.
The application was not opposed by the prosecution.
Judge Taylor told the jury that her granting bail to Harris should have no impact on their decisions on the current charges.
She said the court would not be sitting on Friday as Harris went through his release from Stafford.
"He will be attending what remains of this trial in person from Monday next week," the judge said.
Two of the indecent assault charges relate to allegations Harris groped the breast of a 16-year-old girl and ran his hand up between her thighs in the back of a taxi at a celebrity sports event in Cambridge in 1978.
Another charge is that he put his hand up the skirt of a 14-year-old girl and touched her on the vagina through her tights as she sought his autograph at a music festival in London in 1971.
The other charge is that he groped the breast of a 13-year-old girl at the BBC Television Centre in 1983 and said to her, "Do you often get molested on a Saturday morning?"
Harris, wearing a grey suit and dark tie, on Thursday watched proceedings from Stafford Prison for the last time.
He was granted the right to appear by video-link due to his age and state of health.
