Accused UK-based Australian Celebrity named in CSA enquiries

It’s been another big general week for the mainstream news schedules, dominated as they are by the Boston terrorist bombing and the shootout in which one of the bombers were killed in America, plus the Fertilizer plant explosion in Texas. Midweek, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was laid to rest in the UK and that filled the news and newspapers here due to the scale of the funeral one step below full state honours.

Once the Thatcher ceremony finished, it emerged that one of the celebrities previously not named by the mainstream media was identified today as Rolf Harris, musician, entertainer and artist from cartoons to paintings. Ireland-based blogger Guido Fawkes already named Harris in January due to none of the same legal issues affecting electronic media in Ireland or in general. Ufohunterorg.uk was the blog that got the electronic scoop, that posting is here.

There’s an interesting debate going on in the comments sections but as an ex-journalist it’s understandable to me that no-one would want to publish the next totally false accusation story which might blow up in the writer’s face, as happened with the BBC and Lord McAlpine. That would be a separate consideration to any legal action taken by Harris or anyone else questioned as part of the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Yewtree parallel enquiries alongside that of Jimmy Savile.

The Daily Mail’s collected coverage from the weekend is here. The BBC has generally profiled Harris although it reads in the style of an obituary, and their general story is in the usual roundup column.