Bindi Nicholls’ disillusioned by father Rolf Harris: ‘I had him on a pedestal and now I can see him as a man’

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Harris guilty of 12 indecent assault charges 4:18

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Entertainer Rolf Harris has been found guilty of all 12 counts of indecent assault in a British court.

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• 02 Jul 2014
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Loyal ... Bindi Harris, daughter of Rolf Harris, outside London’s Southwark Crown Court. Picture: Alastair Grant Source: AP

It was a show for the TV cameras.

It didn’t matter the car that carried them only rolled a few metres from the steps of Southwark Crown Court before it would stop around the corner and she would get out and go her own way.

It was an image that she had chosen, to prove she was standing by her dad despite the allegations he had sexually assaulted several women, including one of her closest childhood friends.

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Bindi went further though and agreed to become a witness for her father and refute claims by that girlfriend - who Nicholls had known since she was two years old - and a former husband, that she had been told her dad was a child molester.

Once at court there were shows of affection between the 50-year-old sculptress and her father, a quick peck on the cheek and reassuring hand on the shoulder.

Rocky relationship ... Rolf Harris arrives at Southwark Crown Court with daughter Bindi, wife Alwen and niece Jenny on June 17, 2014, for his indecent assault trial. Picture: Terry Scott Source: AAP

But this, the prosecution argued, was all an act by a daughter who wanted to assure her inheritance, who was already on her father’s payroll with a monthly allowance, and who had been briefed by lawyers he had hired to protect his name.

And to prove it, prosecutor Sasha Wass QC released a private email between father and daughter which she said showed the true nature of their relationship.

Bindi shook her bobbed bleached-blond hair in disgust as the email was read to court.

She begins “Hi dad” and in brackets says this email, dated July 2012, is to remain between the two of them, before she goes on to state how much she loved him and her mother Alwen with all her heart and how she couldn’t have chosen better parents. Then it quickly turns to money and revelations by an accountant that Harris has about $19.9 million.

“In regards to me (your only child) I find it confusing that really I’m not that interested in money or driven by it, I don’t want the latest shows, cars blah blah blah I’m not trying to be an ‘it’ girl, really I’m just living quite simply and wanting to do my art work … firstly I understand that I am sole inheritor of your estate — is this true? If I am then I feel you both have to sit down and discuss your feelings or beliefs about this inheritance.”

She goes on to ask whether when they both died was she still getting the money and should she not now be running the company so when they did pass away she would feel empowered.

“Also on an emotional note please imagine how it is for me. I still feel guilty about spending any money asking Jenny (accountant) for top ups of my account etc and yet figures in the millions are being talked about willy nilly, I stress about spending ($3600) on a holiday or taking a holiday with three of us or framing pictures or getting casts made blah blah blah….”

She added: “It is like being told that you will be winning the lottery at some point so you get excited and dream about the things that you could do which is quite normal, everyone would dream about that.”

Show of strength ... Rolf Harris is publicly supported by daughter Bindi, left, and niece Jenny. Picture: Alastair Grant Source: AP

Dad and daughter weren’t always that close. Bindi told the court Harris was a way a lot. In an interview five years ago Harris himself recalled when his daughter was 16 she blasted him when he stopped to sign autographs.

“You spend more time with total strangers and give them more of your love and attention than you do Mum and I,” Harris recalled in the 2005 interview.

For her part life was apparently hard for Bindi. Her first marriage broke down after four years and a son, Marlon, who is now 18. She then married schoolteacher Craig Nicholls, who has been a solid companion with her at the court.

In giving evidence supporting her father, Bindi revealed she had loved to bits her best friend, the girl who claimed she had been assaulted by him from age 13, and they were inseparable growing up. She detailed to the court the moment her friend told her in 1997 that something had happened between her and Bindi’s father. She described the shock as appalling but then said her friend told her the something had been going “since I was 18 or 19”. But the friend claimed in court she told Bindi clearly it had been going since she was 13. Bindi’s ex-husband Malcolm Cox corroborated the victim’s claim that she told Bindi she was a child when her father first abused her.

Either way Bindi said she was furious with her father and had smashed two of his paintings and felt like stabbing herself with a fork. She said she did feel suicidal but then calm apparently set in.

“I realised we are all human, I had him on a pedestal and now I can see him as a father and man,” she told the court.

Bindi was accused of helping her father to which she responded she was not lying and there was no collusion since she hardly spoke to her father and certainly not on this topic. She admitted to having counselling because “it’s difficult being a daughter of a famous man”