Disgraced Rolf Harris Stripped Of His CBE

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Disgraced children's entertainer Rolf Harris, who was jailed last year for indecent assault, has been stripped of his CBE.

An official announcement in the London Gazette revealed: "The Queen has directed that the appointment of Rolf Harris to be a Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, dated 17 June 2006, shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order."

The 84-year-old convicted paedophile has already been stripped of honours in his native Australia.

He was jailed for just under six years after being found guilty of sex attacks on girls as young as seven.

At his sentencing last year, Mr Justice Sweeney told the shamed performer: "You have shown no remorse for your crimes at all.

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Gallery: Rolf Harris' Career In Pictures

Rolf Harris was born on March 30, 1930, and grew up in Perth, Western Australia. As a boy, he became interested in art and his talent was recognised at primary school.

Harris had his first solo art exhibition in Perth at the age of 16. He spent two years at university but left to begin a course at teacher training college.

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He was a talented swimmer when he was a teenager but while he was at teacher training college, he contracted a virus that paralysed him for several months.

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In 1952, aged 21, he left Australia to study art in London. He started at art school in 1953 but left after two years to work with the artist Hayward Veal.

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During the 1950s, he worked for the BBC on children's programmes. In 1958, he married Alwen Hughes and worked on a TV show in Perth for a year.

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"Your reputation lies in ruins ... but you have no one to blame but yourself.

"You took advantage of the trust placed in you because of your celebrity status to commit the offences."

The main complainant against him was his daughter Bindi's best friend, to whom seven of the 12 counts related.

The woman, now aged 49, said she had been "traumatised" by the years of abuse she suffered.

She said: "The attacks that happened have made me feel dirty, grubby and disgusting. The whole sordid saga has traumatised me."

Another victim, Australian Tonya Lee - who waived her right to anonymity - said her assault by Harris in a London pub during a visit to England was a "turning point" in her life that she has never recovered from.

She said: "I have never felt safe since, I live in a constant state of anxiety."

A third victim, indecently assaulted by him as she went to get his autograph at a Portsmouth community centre when she was seven or eight, said Harris' assault took away her childhood.

She said the attack left her angry and confused, adding: "I became an angry child, unable to express myself and unable to trust men."

A fourth victim, who was assaulted when she was a teenager as Harris took part in a celebrity game show in Cambridge in the 1970s, said he took advantage of her, making her feel ashamed.

She said: "He treated me like a toy that he had played with for his own pleasure."

Since his conviction Harris has been stripped of his Bafta fellowship and lost an honorary degree from the University of East London.

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