20-05-2025
EXCLUSIVE Rolf Harris's widow left staggering fortune to their daughter on her death following dementia battle aged 92 - after her paedophile husband hid his wealth to avoid paying compensation to his victims
Paedophile Rolf Harris 's widow Alwen left a fortune of just under £4 million to their daughter who stood by the children's TV star while he was exposed as a sex offender.
Details of her will show Alwen Harris, who died in August last year aged 92, left £3,840,532 to Ava Reeves, who used to be known as Bindi Harris.
The will dated in 2018 before Harris died, would have seen the estate go to her husband had he been alive, but the amount appears to confirm suspicions that the disgraced former children's entertainer 'shielded' his fortune to avoid legal claims from his victims, even after his death.
He died in May 2023 aged 93 following a battle with neck cancer. At the time of his death, reports suggested he might leave around £16million to Alwen and daughter Bindi, 60.
However, court documents released at the time of his death showed his assets to be worth £438,802. Expenses then brought that sum down to zero.
It was claimed Harris purposely reduced his fortune to prevent his victims from seeking financial compensation after his death.
Ex-detective Mark Williams-Thomas, who played a role in convicting the disgraced performer, said at the time: 'This is yet another disgrace.
'He has obviously planned to get rid of money and assets and there is no way he'd have actually been penniless,' he said.
'He had amassed a huge amount of wealth and I would assume he has squirreled it away to avoid victims making claims on it, even after his death.
'The man had no shame.'
Ava stood by her father along with Alwen, while he was on trial for sexual of underage girls in 2014, even though one of Harris's victims was a close childhood friend.
The will contains a codicil, or revision, which was made in March 2022, leaving Ava as the sole family executor of the will and removing Rolf Harris's sister Jennifer Harris as a co-executor with Ava.
Harris was barely seen in public after leaving prison in 2017 retreating to his Thames-side mansion, in Bray, Berkshire, for his final years.
He died after reportedly falling 'gravely sick' with neck cancer, with most of his £16 million fortune going to Ava/Bindi as well.
The family home in Bray is now up for sale with a price tag of £4 million. According to the Land Registry, the owners are still listed as Rolf and Alwen Harris.
Last month Ava was seen emptying the property. A source told the Mirror: 'She wants to sell it, but she doesn't desperately need the money and is in no rush, so she's determined to hold out for a good price.'
She reportedly changed her name to Ava in order to get away from the legacy of her father's name and to build her own career as an artist.
Harris was brought to justice in 2014, in one of the prosecutions brought by the Metropolitan Police's Operation Yewtree - an investigation into historical behaviour by celebrities.
Drama surrounded each day of his first trial at Southwark Crown Court.
His family attempted to put on a united front, holding hands together for the cameras as they apparently travelled to court together.
But this was later labelled an elaborate show by the prosecution - it turned out his daughter Bindi was joining her father for the last few moments of the journey into court.
Harris's appearance in the witness box was, in part, a reminiscence about his long career as a singer and cartoonist that was designed to entertain the jury. 'In 1959,' asked his barrister Sonia Woodley KC, 'did you invent something called the wobbleboard?'
Harris said he had done. He went on to sing a few lines of his 1965 hit Jake the Peg.
But such semi-comic moments could not diminish the compelling testimony of women who had got to know Rolf Harris when they were young. His main victim had known Harris and Bindi well from childhood.
The court heard that Bindi's friend was first abused by Rolf Harris on a holiday to Hawaii, when she was 13. Over time, he groomed her and repeatedly abused her until she was in her mid-20s.
'[His victim] had been totally controlled by Rolf Harris,' prosecutor Sasha Wass, KC, told the court. 'He knew that he could have access to her intimately whether there were people around or not.'
By the time she was 29, she had developed a drink problem, which she blamed on Harris's abuse. At this point the woman told her family what he had done to her.
The family's furious reaction culminated in a visit by Harris to the woman's village in the English countryside.
'She said she was disgusted by what he had done,' Wass said, 'and she hit him about the head.'
The woman then made him walk around the village, knowing he would be recognisable in public. Wass said: 'She continued to berate him, not caring about the embarrassment.'
In court, Harris's defence case was that the abuse she said took place when she was under age had never happened, and that sex between them took place later and was consensual.
After the confrontation in the village Harris never spoke to the woman again, but wrote a pleading letter to her father: 'I would like to talk to you to apologise for betraying your trust and for unwittingly so harming your darling [daughter]. I know that what I did was wrong but we are, all of us, fallible and oh how I deluded myself. Please forgive me, love Rolf.'
Others knew Harris only fleetingly. Four women were named on the charge sheet. His conviction for the indecent assault of one of them was overturned on appeal.
More women gave evidence about his character. There was a family friend who said Harris had told her in 1969, when she was 12: 'Come here, I want to be the first one to give you a tongue kiss,' and did so, terrifying her.
A dancer from New Zealand said Harris had groped her as a 17-year-old in 1970; a holidaymaker said Harris took her to the back room of a Maltese bar the same year and assaulted her.
A production worker on an Australian TV show of Harris's, Tony Porter, flew to London to tell the trial about the time he saw the entertainer grope a make-up artist. As he did so he 'made a lascivious noise with his mouth', said Porter.
One woman fought back tears as she recounted the story of how she suffered sexual assault at the hands of Harris when she was aged 14 and in London on a theatre trip in 1986.
Harris was jailed for nearly six years for 12 indecent assaults against four girls - including one aged just seven or eight.
Sentencing Mr Justice Sweeney said Harris, 84, had taken advantage of his celebrity status and had shown 'no remorse'.
One victim said the abuse had taken away her 'childhood innocence'.
