Alan Collins, partner in the sex abuse team at Hugh James Solicitors, said: “Many victims of sexual abuse battle with a psychological barrier over whether to begin the legal process of trying to hold their abuser to account and claim compensation.
“Rolf Harris’s passing could act as a trigger to many of his victims, reigniting the psychological trauma they battled with and providing them with a renewed incentive to seek justice and be rightfully compensated.”
Given the impossibility of having an actual trial this is even better than ambulance chasing, isn’t it?
Squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak, squeak squeak squeak, squeak… right in my arse.
Who is going to compensate them? They can hardly make a claim on his estate, surely?
That’s exactly what the target is, the estate. Saville’s got entirely eaten by the lawyers. It’s also not about compo, it’s about wages for laywyers arguing over compo.
When are we going to line all the lawyers up against a wall and shoot them?
See also: Jimmy Saville. Years of ‘claims processing’ has enriched the lawyers mightily
On the door of the Harley dealer in Las Vegas: “No guns”. “No Lawyers”.
As soon as they make it legal, Jim. That’s why there are so many of them in Parliament…
I like to think that he and his wife have buried all the resources, given them to the kids etc etc. Buy things that the compo lawyers can’t come for. Those Savile charities should have blown the money on coke and whores. “Oh, yeah, you can have all the money. There’s a tenner down behind the sofa, maybe”.
I remember Anna Raccoon writing about the case, how the alleged victims got the wrong park in a town, or I think in one case, the wrong year. And I don’t like the thing of multiple cases being brought together. If someone has committed a crime, you try that crime.
Addolff, read you comment after I posted. I think they should have the Harley sign at the entrance to Parliament, but with the “no” at the beginning omitted and “but” inserted. Perhaps then they could sort out their differences mano a mano.
But mano a mano requires no guns. “mano” == “hand”
BoM4. I too remember Anna. She was brilliant. Because she was so open and honest about her life (and what a life she had) you know that what she said about Saville was likely to be closer to the truth than what all ghouls popping up after he had died would say. I mean I did they wait till he died? Oh. Wait. It’s because he couldn’t answer back.
I remember when the final libel trial was taking place between Freddie Starr and the woman who had made questionable (choosing my word carefully there) claims about him. When, in the face of reality, the judge still found against him that seemed to be the final straw for Anna. I know she had cancer but after this verdict her blogging rapidly tailed off (not helped by the appalling behaviour of certain regular posters on her site who she had probably considered her friends).
I wonder if in years to come, this will be a text book example of “Unintended Consequences”.
The game plan, I suspect, was to bring ludicrous trumped-up charges against some popular figures, with the intention that they would be laughed out of court.
“I was abused by a man with a beard who said he was called Rolf Harris, after his Portsmouth concert”. The prosecution was unable to provide evidence that Rolf had ever played in Portsmouth, much less on the date of the alleged ‘offence’. The girl’s father denied she was allowed out on the specified date.
Having discredited the whole idea, the establishment would then be well placed to whitewash genuine allegations against senior, ahem, randy figures.
But the courts started convicting on the basis of no evidence and unverifiable claims. Disaster!
The whole thing was then quickly brought to an end, and the sacrificial targets sold down the river. Cliff Richard was very lucky to escape a similar frameup.
At most, I suspect all Rolf was guilty of was consensual sex with very willing groupies. Perhaps distasteful to a modern eye, but perfectly normal at the time, and what young man could have not been tempted when the 1960’s opportunities offered?
Anent your headline: I’ve never seen a hearse chasing a lawyer. I live in hope though.
P.S. I pronounce hearse to rhyme with arse. I have no idea how or when I picked that up. Did people use it in my boyhood? I don’t hear anyone else using my pronunciation nowadays. Or is it just that I hardly ever hear anyone say the word anyway?
The media likes to point out that Rolf was convicted as a serial offender for 12 sex offences between 1968 and 1986. They also like to picture him with Jimmy Saville even though the only connection was that they were celebratees. When you look deeper it was 2 young girls that he allegedly groped once. One teenager who claims he sexually assaulted her 3 times in one afternoon. The other 7 were part of an ongoing “relationship” with his daughters friend who he did have sex with after she was 18.
Memory is not reliable. People remember what they think happened not what actually happened. Getting a conviction based on one persons memory versus another’s after decades has passed seems dubious. There really ought to be a statue of limitations for such crimes.
Andy
Like it or not that’s where we are now, unless the woman’s name rhymes with Rara Teade.
Why do they bury lawyers face down?
My favourite:
What’s the difference between a dead dog in the road and a dead lawyer in the road?
There are skid marks in front of the dog.