'Shameless' paedo TV star Rolf Harris 'wiped £16m fortune to make it harder for victims to access', new documents reveal
11/20/2024 10:40 AM
DISGRACED Rolf Harris died penniless, official documents reveal.
Vile Harris – who lived out his final years as a recluse after being convicted of child sex crimes – succumbed to neck cancer last May aged 93.
At the time, it was said that he left behind a fortune of around £16million that would be passed down to his wife Alwen and daughter Bindi, 60.
But probate documents show that – when he died – his assets were said to be worth just £438,802.
When expenses were taken out the net value of his estate was £0.
It is thought much of his wealth may have been carved off before his death to make it difficult for his victims – who were seeking compensation for their trauma – to get access to his fortune.
The former TV favourite was convicted in 2014 and sentenced to five years and nine months in jail for 12 indecent assaults on four underage girls between 1968 and 1986.
He was finally nailed under the Met Police's Operation Yewtree probe into historic sex abuse which also saw stars including Stuart Hall and Fred Talbot jailed.
Aussie Harris – a staple of children's TV in the 1980s – was released from prison in 2017 part-way through a re-trial on four accusations of indecent assault.
In November 2017, he appeared at the Court of Appeal in London to try to overturn his convictions but succeeded on only one.
However, the other 11 convictions remained.
Harris, who died from neck cancer, lived his final years as a recluse at his luxury £5million home on the banks of the Thames, in upmarket Bray, Berkshire.
Much of his fortune is believed to have been spent on round-the-clock carers that looked after him and his wife Alwen, who died in September this year after suffering from dementia.
His legal documents show that his last will was signed in March 2022, just a year before his death, and was witnessed by two of his carers.
Investigator and ex-detective Mark Williams-Thomas – who helped to convict Harris – said: "This is yet another disgrace.
"He has obviously planned to get rid of money and assets and there is no way he'd have actually been penniless.
"He had amassed a huge amount of wealth and I would assume he has squirreled it away to avoid victims making claims on it, even after his death.
“The man had no shame."
Best known for hits Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport and Jake The Peg, as well as a string of children's TV hits, Harris painted the 80th birthday portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
When he died it was estimated that his fortune could be as much as £16million, but his conviction on paedophile charges also severely impacted his wealth.
