Entertainer Rolf Harris has been accsued of sexual assault, but no charges have been laid. File photo Ross Swanborough. Source: News Limited
ROLF Harris's behaviour around young female fans always has been regarded as impeccable.
In several interviews and in his autobiography, he joked about being flirtatious around beautiful women, but he kept his distance from groupies even when his rock-star peers were throwing caution to the wind in his presence.
Even the '60s didn't swing for him.
"For me it was all rather unnerving," he wrote of the groupies who tried to get backstage at concerts, where he shared the bill with other top acts.
"There were semi-clad young women in dressing rooms, shower stalls, wardrobes and on tables. I tried not to watch or be seen watching but it wasn't easy.
"I spent most of my time reading the same page of a book 14 times before realising I was holding it upside down.
"A part of me wanted the courage to get involved, but I was petrified. I was almost twice the age of the young blokes and I was married. And I kept asking myself, 'How did I miss out on all of this when I was their age?'
"Yet the sheer mindlessness of it all threatened to shatter my illusions about women. I wanted them to be up there on a pedestal, not scrabbling around in dressing rooms with very little on."
Harris's popularity with children also made in him the perfect ambassador for kids charities and causes.
He produced a video shown in UK schools in the 1980s teaching children how to deal with sexual, physical or emotional abuse. The video, Kids Can Say No, was commissioned by the UK National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
In 1986 WA education chiefs discussed with Harris producing a similar video for children here.
Thousands of his fans from around the world sent him messages of support on social-media sites friends describing him as the "perfect gentleman" on Friday after UK newspaper The Sun named Harris as the Australian entertainer arrested last month by UK detectives on suspicion of sexual assault. He was bailed to appear before police in May.
He vehemently denies the allegations.
Close friends say Harris is shattered by the police investigation.
He has overcome previous dark periods in his life. He was diagnosed with clinical depression in 1993 after his Cartoon Club show was axed and he feared his career was at an end.
But Harris, regarded in a Time magazine poll as one of the top five entertainers of the 20th century, came back stronger. In 2005 he was invited to paint the Queen at Buckingham Palace to mark her 80th birthday.
News of his arrest has been a hammer blow for several generations of fans here, where he is revered as a national treasure.
Bassendean's favourite son, arguably Australia's greatest entertainment export, has never forgotten his roots, donating heavily to local causes down the years.
A national junior backstroke champion in his teens he learnt to swim in the Swan after falling in the river as a three-year-old Harris helped finance the town's swimming pool.
He was the star attraction at Bassendean's centenary celebrations in 2000, performing before 22,000 locals at the town's oval.
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