LIFE AND TIMES OF ROLF HARRIS

EARLY LIFE

* Born 30 March, 1930, to Welsh parents in the small West Australian town of Bassendean

* A champion state swimmer and talented artist whose self-portrait, at 16, was accepted to be hung in the Art Gallery of NSW for the Archibald Prize

EARLY CAREER 

* Moved to London at 22 to study at the London Art School

* Broke into TV by drawing cartoons with a puppet called Fuzz and was soon regularly performing on the BBC and ITV

* Married Welsh sculptor and jeweller Alwen Hughes in 1958, with a dog as bridesmaid, and had daughter Bindi

ASCENDANCE TO AUSTRALIAN ICON

* Headhunted by Australian TV executives and returned to Perth in 1960, when TV was launched there, to run his own daily variety show

* Recorded his now infamous song Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport which topped the pop charts

* Developed his song and three-legged dance routine Jake the Peg in the '60s

* Back in the UK, The Rolf Harris Show ran on BBC from 1967 to 1974

* His version of American civil war song Two Little Boys hit No.1 on the British charts and sold a million copies 

LATE CAREER

* Performed in opening celebrations for the Sydney Opera House in 1973

* Twenty years later, his cover of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven led to performances at seven Glastonbury festivals

* His British children's TV show Cartoon Time was cancelled in 1989, but he returned to the small screen in Animal Hospital and in the early 2000s hosted art programs for the BBC

* Commissioned to paint a portrait of the queen for her 80th Birthday in 2005 - it was panned by critics

SEXUAL ASSAULTS

* Arrested in 2013 and later charged with the indecent assault of four underage girls dating back to the 1980s

* Jailed in 2014 for five years and nine months

* After three years behind bars, he was released in 2017 while facing a second trial for seven more charges - he was acquitted on three; the jury was hung on four

* The case was retried for three of the undecided offences but the jury was still unable to reach a verdict - the prosecution decided against another trial, and Harris was a free man