Yvette Fielding claims Rolf Harris sexually assaulted her while she was hosting Blue Peter as a teenager

18 May 2024, 07:43

Former Blue Peter presenter Yvette Fielding has said that Rolf Harris sexually assaulted her while she was hosting the children's show.

The disgraced entertainer Harris was left alone in a studio with Fielder, who joined the show when she was just 18 in 1987.

She said that Harris used the opportunity to grope her, and she blamed senior colleagues for leaving her alone with him.

Harris was a popular entertainer for decades before being convicted of several indecent assaults in 2014. He died of cancer last year, aged 93.

Speaking about the incident, Fielding told the Sun: "It was very confusing and shocking - just bizarre to think Rolf Harris was squeezing and patting my bottom and I am standing there, thinking 'I don't know what to do'.

"Other people in the industry must have known what he was like and you left me alone in the studio with him.

"That shouldn't have happened. I must have been 18 or 19.

"I think a lot of them did know."

Fielding said she endured a "grotesque" incident with DJ and TV presenter Jimmy Savile, a prolific sex offender who concealed his crimes until his death.

Savile died aged 84 in October 2011 and a documentary a year after his death uncovered his crimes.

"He took my hand and started stroking it. 'Look into my eyes', he said, 'And tell me what you're thinking'," Fielding revealed.

"He was grotesque.

"I just don't understand why the BBC allowed him to get away with that for as long as he did."

The BBC has been approached for comment.

Harris died at his home in Bray, Berkshire in May last year. The news was confirmed by the registrar at Maidenhead Town Hall, which covers the leafy village.

His death certificate said he died on May 10 of neck cancer and "frailty of old age", and would be cremated.

His family said in a statement: "This is to confirm that Rolf Harris recently died peacefully surrounded by family and friends and has now been laid to rest.

"They ask that you respect their privacy. No further comment will be made."

Harris, who was born in Perth, Australia, in 1930, became a national treasure and achieved fame for his paintings and work on children's programmes.

Such was his fame and high-regard, he was commissioned to paint a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in 2005.

Harris came to the UK in 1953 to study and built a life as one of the country's most prominent and popular entertainers.

But he was exposed as a sex offender when he was convicted of indecent assault against four girls in 2014 amid Operation Yewtree, and was jailed for five years and nine months.

The crimes happened between 1968 and 1986.

Harris was also stripped of his CBE, OBE and MBE.