Rolf Harris cleared of three sex charges in second trial

Disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris has been cleared of three sex charges.

A jury took just under a week to find the 86-year-old Australian not guilty of three of the seven alleged assaults said to have taken place over four decades, following a second trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

Harris is currently in jail following a 2014 trial which saw him convicted of 12 sex offences against four female victims, one aged as young as seven or eight.

But his defence team claimed the jury in the first trial had “got it wrong“ and that the media frenzy had “without doubt made him vulnerable to people making accusations against him”.

The pensioner declined to give evidence at his second trial, instead silently watching proceedings first on video from Stafford prison and then later from the dock with a hearing loop.

Harris, wearing a pale blue shirt, suit and patterned tie, showed no reaction as the not guilty verdicts were read out by the jury forewoman.

Judge Alistair McCreath discharged the jury from deliberating on the further four counts he is accused of.

The prosecution team asked for one week to decide if they will apply for a retrial.