16/12/2014

Charity Boss Found Guilty Of Sexual And Indecent Assaults On Children

A 55-year-old man has been found guilty of sexually abusing street children in Africa.

Simon Harris, of Pudleston in Herefordshire, was found guilty at Birmingham Crown Court of seven charges of indecent and sexual assault, and of possessing indecent images of children.

According to a report by the BBC, Mr Harris – who was head of the charity VAE, which would find British volunteers work in African schools – would "lure children to his home" with the offer of food, shelter and money.

A jury unanimously found Harris guilty of five charges of sexual assault and two charges of indecent assault.

It is understood allegations about Mr Harris were uncovered when Channel 4 began a documentary on the street children of Gilgil, where Harris lived in East Africa.

(MH/JP)

Related UK National News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

04 July 2014
Rolf Harris Jailed For Five Years And Nine Months For Indecent Assaults
Rolf Harris has been sentenced to five years and nine months behind bars following a string of sexual assaults on young girls. The entertainer, 84, was found guilty of all 12 charges at Southwark Crown Court on Monday. Nine of the attacks took place between 1968 and 1985. The other three were for indecent assault.
30 June 2014
Rolf Harris Guilty Of Indecent Assaults
Entertainer Rolf Harris has been found guilty of indecent assaults against underage girls. The jury at Southwark crown court convicted Harris of 12 counts of indecent assault on four victims between 1968 and 1986. The 84-year-old was accused of having a "Jekyll and Hyde" character, prosecutors claimed.
29 August 2013
Rolf Harris To Face 13 Charges Over Child Sexual Abuse
Rolf Harris will appear in Westminster Magistrates' Court on September 23 to face nine charges of indecent assault and four of making indecent images of children, police have announced. Six of the charges relate to the indecent assault of a fifteen-year-old girl in 1980 and three to a fourteen-year-old girl in 1986.
14 January 2014
Rolf Harris Plea Hearing Underway
Rolf Harris has appeared before Southwark Crown Court to enter pleas over 12 counts of indecent assaults. The 83-year-old veteran entertainer and TV presenter is accused of assaulting four girls between 1968 and 1986, along with four counts of making indecent images of a child between March and July 2012.
26 September 2005
British man killed by crocodile
A British man whose body was discovered in northern Australia at the weekend is believed to have been killed by a crocodile. Russell Harris, 37, from Eastwood, Nottingham, disappeared on Saturday, while snorkelling with a friend off Picnic Beach on the island of Groote Eylandt, off the north east coast of Australia.