Rolf Harris was arrested for the first time in 2012 (Picture: Tom Nicholson/Lnp/REX/Shutterstock)
Rolf Harris has died aged 93 after a battle with neck cancer, it was confirmed on Tuesday.
The Australian-born entertainer was once considered a national treasure, but had a well-documented fall from grace after he was arrested for the abuse of young girls.
He had worked in the entertainment industry for decades, as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality.
Throughout the years he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (in 1968); then was advanced to Officer in 1977, then to Commander in 2006, and even famously painted a portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2005.
But in 2012 when the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal broke, Harris was arrested as part of the Operation Yewtree police investigation.
Here, Metro.co.uk explains what happened to the disgraced comedian after his arrest.
Why was Rolf Harris arrested?
After the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal broke, Harris was one of 12 people arrested and was questioned about historical allegations of sexual offences for the first time in May 2013.
Harris was charged with offences dating back to the 1980s (Picture: ITV)
While he denied any wrongdoing and was released on bail without charge, in August he was again arrested and the charged with nine counts of indecent assault dating to the 1980s.
Those involved two girls between 14 and 16 years old, and four counts alleging production of indecent child images in 2012.
In December of the same year, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that Harris was facing three further counts of sexual assault.
The new charges were of alleged assault against females aged 19 in 1984, aged seven or eight in 1968 or 1969, and aged 14 in 1975.
At a further hearing at Southwark Crown Court in January 2014, Harris pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Did Rolf Harris go to prison?
Following delays in the trial, which also involved the judge’s summing-up of the case taking three days in itself, the jury spent over a week deliberating before finally finding him guilty on all 12 counts of indecent assault.
His trial happened back in 2014, after which he was found guilty and sentenced to nearly six years in prison (Picture: Carl Court/Getty Images)
In July 2014, Harris was sentenced to a total of five years and nine months in prison.
When explaining the sentencing, the judge told Harris he had shown ‘no remorse’ for his crimes.
‘Your reputation now lies in ruins, you have been stripped of your honours but you have no one to blame but yourself,’ he said.
Harris served his sentence at HM Prison Stafford and was released on May 19, 2017 after serving three years.
A few months later one count that had found Harris indecently assaulted an eight-year-old girl in Portsmouth was overturned as unsafe.
Although he applied for permission to appeal against convictions concerning the three remaining girls, it was refused.
Where was Rolf Harris before he died?
Harris was believed to have returned to live in his multi-million pound estate in Bray, Maidenhead, in Berkshire upon his release from prison.
Harris outside his home in Bray in 2019 (Picture: PA)
In 2019, it was reported that he was living as a recluse and rarely left his home.
He was said to spend his days with wife Alwen Hughes, who he met at art school when she was a sculptor, and whom stood by him in the trial.
Harris was seen in public four years ago when he infamously showed up in the grounds of a primary school where he was spotted waving at schoolchildren before being asked to leave.
In recent months, before his death aged 93, it was reported that he was ‘gravely ill’.
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The entertainer had a huge fall from grace once his offending was revealed.
