Rolf Harris trial: Reporting on the 'confronting and disturbing' downfall of a childhood icon
Having covered the trial of Rolf Harris from the outset, Europe correspondent Barbara Miller reflects on the experience.
For the past eight weeks, Australian and British media have converged on a London court to watch the downfall of a man previously considered something of a national treasure in both his home and adopted countries.
Harris has now been sentenced to five years and nine months in jail for a string of indecent assaults on girls and young women between the late 1960s and mid-1980s.
The sentence sealed what has been a spectacular fall from grace for the veteran entertainer and television star.
One of the more surreal moments in the Harris trial was when the barristers got into legal argument over what constituted masturbation versus fondling.
The talk was of an incident that allegedly took place under a blanket at the home of Harris's daughter in Devon.
Sonia Woodley QC favoured the former term, while prosecutor Sasha Wass QC the latter.
Ms Wass suggested the defence was "splitting hairs".
For once Justice Nigel Sweeney, who otherwise ran a pretty tight ship, appeared lost for words.
He stared blankly at the two women for a beat or two, possibly considering his options. "Right", he said finally, and moved on to another matter.
Trial heard about Harris's premature ejaculation issues
In a case dealing with allegations of sexual assault, the evidence will naturally be confronting and disturbing.
When the defendant is someone you feel you know to some extent - you might even say have grown up with - the sense of unease is heightened.
For example, there we were hearing about Harris's premature ejaculation, an event he described as "very depressing".
"It's highly embarrassing for a man not to be able to have penetrative sex," he testified.
The 84-year-old was describing a sexual encounter with his daughter's friend, a woman he claimed to have had a consenting relationship with but with whom, as he told it, he had had in their 10-year sporadic affair only one memorable conversation - and that was about cleaning the sheets after said premature ejaculation.
There were times listening to the evidence of that woman in the early days of the trial that I thought I might be physically sick.
She chose to speak from behind a screen. The acoustics in the courtroom were not the best and we strained to hear her words.
Hers was a dulled, monotone voice, in which she told of her years as an alcoholic, her panic attacks, her medication and about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her friend's father, a man she said she was scared of.
The detailed questioning about the mechanics of sex acts performed under duress was stomach-turning.
When the judge, in his painstaking, patient manner, summarised the evidence before sending the jury out, the queasiness returned.
Part of me still really cannot believe the outcome, and I mean that with no disrespect to the jury or the victims, whose accounts of their ordeals were chilling and deeply moving.
But this is Harris after all - the quirky guy.
This is the boy from Bassendean in Western Australia who came to London as a 20-something to follow his dreams of becoming an artist, and went on to paint the Queen and pursue a successful television career into his 80s.
History to be rewritten after conviction
Now, history must be rewritten. There are awards and titles to be revoked, plaques and paintings to be removed.
Harris is not what many of us thought.
In the UK, people are getting used to this idea. DJs, soap stars and a celebrity publicist have all been taken to court since Operation Yewtree began, borne out of the scandal surrounding the late BBC star Jimmy Savile.
Some have been acquitted. Not so, Rolf Harris.
"How big a story is this in Australia?" the British media constantly demanded.
I always felt my answer was somehow inadequate. It seemed they wanted something more than the response I gave - something deeper.
"Well, pretty big really, he was a huge star in his home country too," I would say.
It was the same in reverse. "How big a story is this in the UK?," came the question all too often. "Well, pretty big really..."
But there is the rub. There is no mystery, no angle.
Large numbers of people here and there liked his act - liked him.
He became one of those people so famous they are instantly identifiable only by their first name - Rolf.
Remember him?
He is the convicted sex offender we must now refer to as Harris.
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