ITV to air documentary about disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris

By Alex Green, PA Acting Deputy Entertainment Editor

Convicted sex offender Rolf Harris will be the subject of an ITV documentary titled Hiding In Plain Sight.

The two-part special will tell the story of his rise and fall through interviews with his victims, the police who investigated him and colleagues who worked alongside him.

The Australian-born entertainer, a family favourite for decades, was jailed for five years and nine months in 2014 and released on licence in May 2017.

Made by TV production company Optomen, Hiding In Plain Sight will document his “public persona of a non-threatening eccentric who was devoted to his wife while revealing that actually, within the industry, Harris was increasingly known as a creep”.

The documentary will also question whether his crimes would have been uncovered had it not been for the Jimmy Savile scandal.

Kate Teckman, commissioner and head of development for factual entertainment for ITV, said: “There are few stories as shocking as Rolf Harris.

“These films give a voice to Harris’s accusers, and will reveal just how the seemingly wholesome ‘national treasure’ was able to molest and abuse his victims in plain sight.”

Harris, now 92, was convicted of 12 indecent assaults at London’s Southwark Crown Court in June 2014.

These included one on an eight-year-old autograph hunter, two on girls in their early teens, and a catalogue of abuse against his daughter’s friend over 16 years.

Following his conviction, Harris was stripped of his CBE – which he received after painting the Queen’s 80th birthday portrait.

In May 2017 he was formally cleared of four unconnected historical sex offences, which he had denied.

Later the same year, one of the 12 indecent assault convictions was overturned by the Court of Appeal.