Rolf Harris Stripped Of Honours In Australia

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Disgraced veteran entertainer Rolf Harris has been stripped of his honours in his native Australia.

Harris was jailed for more than five years last year after being convicted of a string of indecent assaults, including one on an eight-year-old.

Another of his young victims was the best friend of his daughter Bindi,

The shamed 84-year-old artist and musician has now lost his Officer and Member of the Order of Australia honours.

A statement from the secretary of the order of Australia said: "It is notified for general information that the Governor-General has terminated the appointments of Officer and Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division, made to: Mr Rolf Harris".

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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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There have also been calls for Harris to lose his CBE in Britain.

Honours given by Buckingham Palace can be revoked when the person is judged to have brought the system into disrepute.

The Honours and Appointments Secretariat can recommend to the forfeiture committee to remove an honour if a person has been found guilty of a crime.

The decision to strip an individual of an honour must be approved by the Queen.

During sentencing last year, Mr Justice Sweeney told Harris: "Your reputation lies in ruins. You have been stripped of your honours and 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."

Harris' BAFTA fellowship was removed following his conviction, while he was also stripped of an honorary degree from the University of East London.

During his seven-week trial, prosecutor Sasha Wass described Harris as a ''sinister pervert''.

She claimed he had a ''dark side'' and was a ''Jekyll and Hyde character''.

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