Rolf Harris loses first appeal bid over conviction for indecent assaults

Judge refuses first round of Harris’s application to appeal

Disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris has had his first appeal bid refused (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris has lost the first round of his appeal bid against his convictions for 12 cases of indecent assault.

A spokesman for the Judicial office confirmed on Friday that a judge had refused the 84-year-old’s application for permission to appeal.

Harris was convicted on 30 June for a string of sexual assaults, one of which was on an eight-year-old autograph hunter, two on girls in their early teens and a catalogue of abuse against his daughter’s friend over 16 years.

The artist and musician was jailed for five years and nine months for the crimes, and is expected to serve just under three years.

Harris’s lawyers lodged papers at the Court of Appeal in August, but despite the case being denied by the judge, Harris is still able to renew the application before three judges at the appeal court.