Australian entertainer Rolf Harris convicted of child sex abuse

Veteran Australian entertainer Rolf Harris was found guilty on Monday of 12 charges of indecently assaulting four girls over nearly 20 years from 1968, the BBC reported.

Harris, 84, who was a mainstay of family entertainment in Britain and Australia for more than 50 years. Some of the victims were as young as seven or eight, the jury was told.

London's Southwark Crown Court heard that the assaults against the four girls in the U.K. took place between 1968 and 1986. Six women who gave supporting evidence for the prosecution said Harris had abused them in Australia, New Zealand and Malta between 1969 and 1991.

Harris's song Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport was a hit in North America, Australia and the U.K. in the 1960s.

Harris is not the first celebrity to be tried recently in Britain for historic sex offences.

The late entertainer Jimmy Savile committed more than 200 sex crimes in the country over more than 50 years, with most victims children and teens who said they were assaulted in TV studios, hospitals, and even a hospice.

Detectives said the scale of Savile's sex abuse was "unprecedented in the U.K."