Rolf Harris was a 'Jekyll and Hyde' character, whose immense talent and public generosity to children and animals hid a darker side - he was sexually attracted to young girls, a court has been told.

Harris allegedly repeatedly approached girls in a friendly way, then took advantage of his close physical contact to indecently assault them.

One of those he befriended, then allegedly assaulted and “groomed” for more than a decade was a friend of his own daughter, Bindi Harris.

Prosecutor Sasha Wass, QC, has opened the case at Southwark Crown Court in the trial of the 84-year-old Australian entertainer, giving new detail of the allegations against him.

Harris faces 12 charges of indecent assault against four girls, from 1968 to 1986. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

“You will see a pattern during the course of this case of Mr Harris approaching girls in a purely friendly way and then, once he is in close physical contact with them, taking advantage of the situation in order to indecently assault them,” Ms Wass said.

"Concealed behind this charming and amicable children's entertainer lay a man who exploited the very children who were drawn to him."

At Channel Seven in Australia he was known as "the octopus" for putting his hands on women, Ms Wass said.

'She felt as if she was his little toy': the first complainant

The first complainant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was a friend of Harris’ daughter Bindi.

The complainant claims she was first abused by Harris in December 1978 when only 13 years old, at a hotel in Hawaii when she was on holiday.

Harris pretended to tickle her when she was wrapped in a towel having just stepped out of the shower.

“[He] wrapped his hands around her and put his hands inside the towel,” Ms Wass said.

He then put his fingers inside her.

“[She] was stunned,” Ms Wass said. “She stood still. She was unable to speak. She was 13 years old. She had always been in awe of the defendant who was already a well-known and popular celebrity.”

Two days later, at the beach, Harris assaulted her again, putting his hands inside her bikini bottoms. He continued similar behaviour in Australia, against the same complainant.

“He would do this whether or not there were family members nearby,” Ms Wass said. “You will hear other instances in this case where Mr Harris touched children and women alike in quite brazen circumstances.

“Maybe that was part of the excitement for him … knowing that he could get away with it.”

Back in the UK, Harris started visiting the complainant, then 14, in her home. He would abuse her in her bedroom. She would drink a “shed load of gin” to deal with her “anxiety and panic” at his visits, Ms Wass said.

The complainant got the impression that Harris "enjoyed the thrill of the risk he was taking".

Harris even twice assaulted the complainant when his daughter was asleep in the same bed.

“The risk of doing this so near to his daughter was exciting him,” Ms Wass said.

From age 19 to 29, the complainant consented to Harris’ “sexual requirements”, the prosecutor said. “[Her] psychological resistance had been destroyed."

"He never treated her as an equal or a human being ... she felt as if she was his little toy.”

The victim told Bindi Harris in the late 1990s that her father had touched her, Ms Wass said.

"Bindi said that she blamed herself," Ms Wass said.

'Letter of confession' to alleged victim's father

Ms Wass said Harris once wrote a "letter of confession" to the alleged victim's father. The letter avoided admitting the sexual relationship took place when she was underage. Ms Wass said it was like Bill Clinton confessing to smoking marijuana but saying he didn't inhale.

In the letter, posted in March 1997, Harris says he was "in a state of abject self loathing".

"(The complainant) told me that she had always been terrified of me and went along with everything that I did, out of fear of me."

"I said 'why did you never just say no?' And (she) said how could she say no to the great television star Rolf Harris. Until she told me that I had no idea that she was scared of me."

"(She) keeps saying that this has all been going on since she was 13."

However, Harris said in the letter that "nothing took place in a physical way" until 1983 or 1984.

"When I see the misery I have caused (her) I am sickened by myself."

He ends the letter by begging for forgiveness.

For years the complainant did not go to police because she thought going to court "would kill her", however, she changed her mind after the Jimmy Savile revelations, and finally reported her alleged abuse to police in November 2012.

Harris admitted having a sexual relationship with the complainant but says it began when she was 18, Ms Wass said.

Last year, Harris told police that the complainant had tried to blackmail him, asking for £25,000 to set up an animal sanctuary and telling him her brother would 'go to the papers' if he did not.

Ms Wass said this was an attempt by Harris to "smear" the complainant.

Harris' interest in the first complainant was not an "isolated aberration", Ms Wass said.

"He used his position as a well-known and well-loved celebrity to access children and to touch them indecently in the knowledge and with the confidence that they would not make any complaints against him because of who he was," she said.

Ms Wass said "Mr Harris was too famous and too powerful. His reputation made him untouchable."

'All the happiness had gone': the second complainant

The second complainant says she was abused by Harris when she was about eight years old, in 1969.

She and her siblings went to a community centre in Portsmouth to meet Harris who was signing photographs for fans.

After he signed "to [complainant] from Rolf Harris" she "noticed that his hand went around her to her bottom and it was put quite forcibly between her legs," Ms Wass said.

It happened a second time. "It was intrusive, it wasn't a gentle gesture in any way at all. She was upset and threw the autograph away immediately."

"All the happiness had gone" from the occasion, Ms Wass said. The second complainant tried to forget all about it, but later recalled it to her husband when she saw Harris on television in the 1980s. She went to police after the Jimmy Savile inquiry began in late 2012.

Harris said to police "I absolutely deny assaulting [the second complainant] as she alleges or at all. I would simply never touch a child inappropriately."

Ms Wass said it was her word against his, however, there were similarities between the stories of the first two complainants.

'She liked it': Allegations of other assaults

Around the same time in 1969, Harris visited Australia where he stayed in a house where a girl aged around 11 or 12 was living, Ms Wass said.

He told the girl, "Come here, I want to be the first one to give you a tongue kiss".

"He then walked over to her, grabbed her, ran his hand up and down her back and stuck his tongue in her mouth," Ms Wass said. "(She) was shocked. She was terrified. She froze. She described the experience as vile and it made her gag."

Harris has not been charged over the alleged incident, however, the prosecution says there were similarities with the other allegations.

In 1970, when he visited New Zealand, he allegedly put his hands under the dress of a 16 or 17-year-old 'MC' at a function on the North Island while he was dancing with her. "She felt sick and confused and embarrassed," Ms Wass said. "Another example of inappropriate touching in a public situation."

"The experience of MC shows another step in the pattern of Mr Harris' behaviour ... He was targeting people who were in awe of him, he pushed the boundaries even in a public place, a dance floor. He knew he could get away with it."

Also in 1970, Frances Igoe-Wales met Harris at a bar on holiday in Malta when she was 18. After taking her to another room to "see some paintings", he pushed her against a door, fondled her breasts and put his hand in her knickers, Ms Wass said. The alleged assault is not the subject of a charge.

"Frances described the whole experience as surreal," Ms Wass said. "Mr Harris behaved as if nothing had happened. You can see this is a pattern."

Harris will deny that he touched her at all, but cannot explain why she has given such an account, Ms Wass said.

In 1986, when Harris was having his make-up done at a Channel Seven TV studio in Australia, he allegedly repeatedly groped a 24-year-old make-up artist, sliding his hand under her baggy denim shorts, Ms Wass said. At one point he grabbed her hips, pulled her towards him and rubbed against her.

Her evidence would demonstrate "how brazen Mr Harris' behaviour was", Ms Wass said. "He had a feeling of entitlement when it came to touching girls."

In 1991, in Hamilton in New Zealand, a 15-year-old girl went with her mother to see Harris at a promotion for British Paints at a local hardware store.

"[Harris] stepped towards [the girl] as if to hug her and then put his right hand into her blouse and touched her left breast. At the same time he put his left hand on her right buttock and squeezed it," Ms Wass said.

The girl stepped back and Mr Harris laughed. Later she told her mother Harris was "a bit handy, mum".

When they posed for a photo later, the mother felt Harris rubbing his groin against her buttocks. She stood on his foot, turned around and said "you are a disgusting creature".

Harris replied in a whisper "she liked it," referring to her daughter, Ms Wass said.

'She was in awe of Mr Harris' celebrity status so said nothing': the third complainant

The third complainant in the case says she met Harris when she was working as a waitress in Cambridge, aged around 14, in the mid-1970s.

She saw Rolf Harris playing with a small terrier.

"He got up and noticed [the complainant] saying 'Oh look who's here'. He then started to rub down the back of her body, from her shoulders to the cheeks of her buttocks," Ms Wass said. "She was shocked but ... she was in awe of Mr Harris' celebrity status so she said nothing to him."

"He was completely undeterred by the fact that there were other people present."

Harris will say that none of this happened, he was out of the country at the time, and can't explain why the complainant would make such claims.

'[She] was frozen and unable to move': the fourth complainant

The fourth complainant, an Australian, says Harris assaulted her in 1986 when she was 15, on a theatre youth group tour to the UK.

"[She] was a small, skinny girl who looked younger than her age," Ms Wass said.

The tour group had dinner with Harris in a London pub, where he told the children funny stories.

At one stage he invited the complainant to sit on his lap and tell him about herself.

"Mr Harris' hands were under the table and he started rubbing himself against [her]," Ms Wass said. "He then put his hands between [her] legs and started patting her thighs with his hand."

He then slowly moved his hands up her thigh and touched her intimately. She got up and went to the toilet, and was in shock. When she came out he gave her a cuddle and "got her into a corner and started to put his hands down her top", Ms Wass said. He then put his hand down her tights.

"[She] was frozen and unable to move," Ms Wass said. The abuse triggered a change in the fourth complainant's behaviour including bulimia and, later, heavy drinking.

Mr Harris told police he was "shocked and distressed" by her allegations, and he denied them in the "strongest possible terms".

He suggested to police that she had fabricated her story "for fame and financial reward" - she had sold her story for $60,000 to Woman's Day and A Current Affair.

However, Ms Wass said, "You may well think it is unattractive to sell your stories to the newspapers and television - but does the fact that you have done so mean that the story is untrue?"

'The Mr Hyde character that lurks within': conclusion

"You have to ask yourself have all these girls, unknown to each other, made up these details or are they all telling the truth: describing the dark side of Mr Harris, the Mr Hyde character that lurks within?" Ms Wass said in conclusion."

"What you have before you is a consistent pattern of sexual offending by Rolf Harris."

"Mr Harris has a sexual interest in underage girls, a tendency to use his celebrity status to sexually touch females with impunity as if entitled to help himself to their bodies, (and) a tendency to touch females of all ages in a sexual manner in circumstances where they were trapped, unable to protest."

She said the fact the allegations were historic did not diminish their criminality, and Mr Harris' celebrity should be "put to one side".

"These victims deserve to have a voice and should not be dismissed or ignored."

Mr Justice Sweeney told the jury to put the case out of their mind over the weekend, and to ignore media reports.

Harris arrived at court with his wife Alwen, daughter Bindi, and other family and friends including his niece Jenny Harris.

He sat in the glass-panelled dock wearing a hearing loop to follow the court proceedings.

The trial before Mr Justice Sweeney is expected to last until late June.

The first witness is due to take the stand on Monday morning, UK time.