Yesterday’s evidence began with a dramatic twist when prosecutor Sasha Wass, QC, introduced television footage from a 1978 TV games show that showed Harris competing in a celebrity competition held in Cambridge.
Just last week, responding to allegations that he had groped the breasts of a 14 year old girl in Cambridge in about 1975 after a TV games show, Harris denied being in the British university city and denied he had ever participated in a TV games show.
However, the footage, from a series calledStar Games, shows Harris competing with celebrities such as fellow actor Colin Baker, Davy Jones, the lead singer of The Monkees, and actress Rula Lenska, and proves that he did participate in such a show in Cambridge in 1978.
Ms Wass said the video, which she showed to Harris and the packed court room, “supports pretty much everything” that one of the complainants had described about the surroundings when she alleges Harris sexually assaulted her.
But last week Harris claimed he had only visited Cambridge once “a couple of years ago” for an art exhibition – “that’s the first time I have ever been to Cambridge,” he said.
“That was a deliberate lie, wasn’t it,” Ms Wass asked him.
“No, it wasn’t,” replied Harris, whom was shown the footage at the end of last week. “I didn’t find out that it was in Cambridge until I saw the video played back…That was the first time I had heard the word Cambridge.”
Harris said he didn’t know he was in Cambridge. He said he didn’t think any of the celebrities knew where they were as they had been taken to the location in a bus.
Ms Wass said the woman who detailed the complaint against Harris in court last week was unsure of the exact time and place of the assault but did describe being at TV games event “with lots of green grass”. She said she was assaulted while helping out as a waitress in a “big white Marquee”.
The footage played to the court, which clearly shows Harris as the captain of one of the celebrity teams, is introduced by celebrity host Michael Asinpal, who says that the show is coming “from Jesus Green in Cambridge”.
Jesus Green is a large grass-covered park in central Cambridge. In some footage, a large, white marquee can clearly be seen in the background.
Harris has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges of indecently assaulting four girls between 1968 and 1986.
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