Soldato
Never even heard of this one, I thought they were talking about the former defence secretary, now THAT would have been a story.
Rolf Harris arrested on sexual charges
- Thread starter ColdAsIce
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Soldato
Soldato
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I'll be interested to hear more. If he's being cleared of the older charges I'll be shocked as it has completely tarnished the opinion most people have of him.
Soldato
No he has been cleared of the recent few (3) that came about, the old remain.
Hes out this summer anyway
Hes out this summer anyway
Soldato
Whether he's guilty of the current charges or not, its pretty clear Rolf is not a nice man.
Sad when one one of your childhood heros turns out to be nasty piece of work
Sad when one one of your childhood heros turns out to be nasty piece of work
I still don't understand how they convict on things like a bum grope from 40 years ago. I mean, it's not like there is any actual evidence? Not saying there is nothing in these things but it seems ripe for people to take advantage.
Man of Honour
If you were innocent, would you not be absolutely overjoyed?
MooMoo444;30484122 said:
Doesnt matter, he already knows hes going to die in prison. What does it matter if these additional claims are proven or not.
MooMoo444;30484122 said:
Not really. I'm sure he's still annoyed at being there in the first place.
DailyGeek;30484118 said:
I've wondered about this too. It really is their word against his, and I wonder how many come forward with lies just to jump on the bandwagon. It's not like they can prove he didn't.
G-MAN2004;30484300 said:
Didn't one of the victims parents keep a letter he sent them apologising for what he done?
ed:
Found it
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...-letter-alleged-sexual-assault-victims-father
Man of Honour
What does that mean, i.e. why would a judge do that?
Man of Honour
MooMoo444;30484122 said:
If you were innocent and your life had been ruined and everything you did would be used against you, would you show any reaction to anything regardless of what you felt?
Caporegime
- Joined
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Gerard;30484412 said:
I mean, that letter doesn't admit anything at all though.
In it he says he feels sick because she told him she believes he raped her. If someone accused me of rape, I'd feel sick about it to. If someone says to me, after a normal few dates and going back to one of our places, she never showed a sign she didn't want to, never said no, we had 'normal' sex then straight after, 2 weeks later or 20 years later told me she felt I raped her... I would probably genuinely throw up.
The gist of that letter is, he said she was lovely/other creepy things while she was 13, which makes him a creep, sure, but nothing more. He says nothing sexual happened till she was older(which implies legal). She says she never said no, because she felt like she couldn't say no(when the sexual contact happened when she was older) but she also says like just saying the creepy things to her at 13 was also molesting her... which lets be honest is simply not true.
Put it this way, can anyone accuse any famous person of rape because after the fact she says she felt she couldn't say no because he was famous? That is not a viable excuse, he was threatening, he intimidated me, he had locked the door and was drunk and angry... all potential for saying you felt you couldn't say no. But 'he was famous so I felt I couldn't say no", is not a viable excuse.
There is certainly potential for grooming charges though, it depends how often they spoke when she was younger and how often they saw each other.
But that letter doesn't obviously admit anything at all, just that he felt sick she was accusing him.
DailyGeek;30484118 said:
G-MAN2004;30484300 said:
I'm no lawyer... does it still have to be "beyond reasonable doubt" in these cases?
Because it's hard to see how it can be beyond reasonable doubt, with no evidence except the alleged victim's testimony.
Is there a thing that if enough people say something, it is a "fact"? So if I could find 5 people to say they were abused by... let's say John, Paul, George and Ringo... then they're guilty?
What evidence could there possibly be, that survives 40 years? Certainly not forensics! Beyond "we can prove you were in the same city"; "we can prove she went to your concert".
FoxEye;30485306 said:
Yep.
EDIT: I was on a jury recently (nothing as serious as this) and we found the person not guilty because, based on the evidence presented to us, we could not be ABSOLUTELY SURE they had committed the crime they were accused of. The prosecution had not proved their case to our jury.
FoxEye;30485306 said:
Nope. But it may be put to a jury and if they believe those five people then they could find the person guilty. So maybe.