‘It takes two to tango’, Harris told alleged victim’s brother

A brother of an alleged victim of Rolf Harris has told a court the veteran entertainer told him it "takes two to tango" when he accused him of sexually abusing his younger sister since she was a teenager.

The man said he was “angry” when his sister opened up about the abuse after he confronted her about her alcohol problem when she turned up drunk at a family gathering in her 20s.

Harris, 84, listened from the dock at London’s Southwark Crown Court where he is on trial on 12 charges of indecent assault between 1968 and 1986 — seven relating to the woman in question. He denies all the charges.

During questioning from prosecutor Sasha Wass QC, the witness said he asked his sister what was causing her to drink regularly to excess, describing her to the court as a “chronic alcoholic”.

“That’s when she confided to me that she’d been sexually abused,” he said.

Asked whether she said who the man was, the witness answered: “She did. She said Rolf Harris.”

He told jurors he later phoned Harris.

“I told him why I was angry. I said ’You have abused my sister’.

“He said ‘It takes two to tango’.”

Prosecutors allege Harris abused the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, over a 15-year period, and “groomed her like a puppy” from the age of 13.

The woman’s brother told the court doctors had said she might die if she did not stop drinking.

Witness statements from various medical health professionals were read out from when she sought help from the 1990s onwards, including from one counsellor who provided help to those with alcohol dependency.

Her statement said that the woman had told her she had been abused by Harris since the age of 13.

“It was very clear the abuse had caused her alcohol problem and had ruined her life,” the statement said. “I got the impression that she was overwhelmed by his charisma and his celebrity status and didn’t feel that she could say no to him.”

Another medical practitioner said the woman suffered from severe anxiety and appeared to have a sense of worthlessness. She said that in October 2012 the woman contacted her to talk about the revelations in the media about Jimmy Savile, “which made her reflect on her own position”.

Other statements from health experts she saw also confirmed the woman opened up about her alleged abuse at the hands of Harris, with one saying she told them it lasted from when she was 13 to 28.

Dressed in a blue-grey suit and patterned tie, Harris listened with the aid of a hearing loop as the alleged victim’s elderly parents gave evidence, when they spoke of their shock at hearing the allegations that the man they “trusted” abused their daughter.

The woman’s mother told jurors she was “completely amazed” when she found out about the claims.