Disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris will be released from prison tomorrow.
He was sentenced to five years and four months in 2014 for 12 counts of indecent assault but after serving less than three years of the term he has been granted bail.
The decision was read out by Judge Deborah Taylor at Southwark Crown Court.
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The judge said: "Yesterday, following an application by the defence unopposed by the prosecution, I decided to grant Mr Harris bail in relation to the charges the jury are considering.
"The fact I have granted him bail doesn't have any bearing on the decision you will make in due course. As a result, Mr Harris will no longer be appearing in this court over the videolink following his release from prison.
"He will be attending what remains of the trial in person from Monday."
Harris is currently undergoing an additional trial for four separate sex offence charges. He hasn't had to appear in person due to his age and poor health.
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His defence told the court at the start of the new trial that the jury in the original case 'got it wrong' and that the media attention 'made him vulnerable to people making accusations against him'.
Credit: PA
The new charges were laid last year by the Crown Prosecution Service, after seven complainants came forward alleging he groped them at different times between 1971 and 2004. Seven charges were initially placed but he was cleared of three in February.
According to ITV, one of the counts was related to an allegation that he touched a 13-year-old girl's breast and asked her: "Do you often get molested in a Saturday morning?"
Another woman told the court that the 87-year-old tried to touch her up in a taxi when she was a teenager.
She says the incident happened after a celebrity sporting event in Cambridge but she told him to 'fuck off and leave me alone'. The claimant allegedly went home and told her dad, who told her she shouldn't have been wearing such a tight-fitting top.
Credit: PA
The Cambridge News quoted her as telling the court: "I was confused. This was Rolf Harris; my sister and I adored him. I watched him on television and I had had one of those xylophone things a few Christmases before.
"I was shocked and confused. I did feel a bit dirty but I didn't feel it was my fault. I didn't flirt with him. He was old enough to be my grandfather.
"Until very recently I had not talked about it in any detail. But he was called Groper Rolf in our house."
During the course of Harris's career, he won a number of accolades, including an MBE, an OBE and CBE. But these were all rescinded in March 2015.
His Member of the Order of Australia and Officer of the Order of Australia were also revoked, along with his honorary doctorates from the University of East London and Liverpool Hope University.
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Sources: ITV & The Cambridge News
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: rolf harris
