Rolf Harris has applied for permission to appeal against his convictions for a series of indecent assaults. Lawyers for the disgraced entertainer lodged papers at the British Court of Appeal this week, the UK Judicial Office revealed.
The papers will go before a single judge who will decide initially whether or not Harris has grounds for appeal. The artist and musician was convicted at London's Southwark Crown Court on June 30th of 12 indecent assaults.
One of the assaults was on an autograph hunter (8), two on girls in their early teens and another of the abuse over 16 years of a close friend of his daughter.
During the seven-week trial, prosecutor Sasha Wass described Harris as a ''sinister pervert''.
She claimed he used his fame to get close to young women and girls, adding that he had a ''dark side'' and was a ''Jekyll and Hyde character''.
The main complainant against Harris was the best friend of the singer's daughter Bindi. The woman, who is now 49, told how she was first molested by Harris after she stepped out of a shower during a holiday in Hawaii in 1978 with Bindi and the rest of her family.
He then groped her again on the beach before carrying out further attacks on her in the bedroom of his family home in Australia - as Bindi slept nearby - and the assaults continued back in Britain.
In impact statements read out in court, the woman said "He made me feel dirty, grubby and disgusting. He had a hold over me, made me a quivering wreck. I was scared of him. He used and abused me...I felt worthless".
Another victim said "I have never felt safe since...I've developed eating disorders and become an alcoholic. He took from me my essence".
A third said "I was an innocent. He took away my childhood" and a fourth said "He treated me like a toy he had played with for his own pleasure".
No trial over alleged child sex images
It was earlier revealed that Harris will not face trial over claims he downloaded sexual images of children. He had 33 such photographs in a much larger collection of thousands of adult pornographic images, according to prosecutors.
But Harris' legal team told the judge Mr. Justice Sweeney the models in the photos were over 18, according to their identity documents provided by website bosses in the Ukraine.
They also maintained the entertainer accidentally accessed the images when he clicked on links from mainstream porn sites.
Prosecutor Sasha Wass said "In the light of the 12 unanimous convictions on the counts that Mr Harris faced, the Crown Prosecution Service has decided it is no longer in the public interest to proceed with a trial on these four charges".
