Rolf Harris sentenced.

Rolf Harris has been sentenced to 5 years and 9 months in jail.

He will serve half of his sentence behind bars and will be released for the remainder.

The sentence comes after the Australian entertainer was convicted of 12 counts of indecent assault in a London Court on Tuesday.

The sentence was announced at Southwark Crown Court this morning.

Prior to sentencing, Harris’s defence counsel argued for leniency on the basis that Harris was 84 and the primary carer of his elderly wife.

Harris’s lawyer also argued that Harris had already suffered enough, having had his reputation ruined by the trial and conviction. And that he should be able to spend his “twilight years with his family”.

While delivering his sentence, the judge noted that Harris had no prior convictions and had been a successful entertainer for 50 years. “But from 1968 to 1986 you were a convicted sex offender”.

“You showed no remorse.”

Of the sexual abuse committed by Harris, often in close proximity to others including his daughter Bindi, the judge said. “You clearly got a  thrill from committing these acts while others were close by.

You’ve been stripped of your honours but you have no-one to blame but yourself. Your reputation lies in ruins.”

The judge went into graphic detail about all 12 of Harris’ crimes, recounting the evidence that had been given during the trial including the fact that Rolf Harris committed sexual assaults against the childhood best friend of his daughter Bindi, even when Bindi was asleep in the same room. And how that those assaults over a period of years had ruined the life of his young victim.

The judge said: I have “no doubt” it was your crimes that made the victim as she was. Caused her “severe psychological harm”.

Also noted by the judge, sentences for Harris’ crimes are much higher today than they were at the time they were committed (the law only permits a judge to hand down a sentence from the time of the crime).

It is expected that 84-year-old Harris will be taken to Wandsworth Jail, before being transferred to Her Majesty’s Prison Littlehey in Cambridgeshire. This prison is “Category C” minimum security prison for inmates who are unlikely to escape, but cannot be trusted in an open prison.