We Asked a Criminal Justice Expert If A Rolf Harris Revenge Album Could Affect His Parole

Image: Metropolitan Police/PA

Earlier this week it was reported that disgraced entertainer, convicted sex offender - and the guy behind a song about a fictional three-legged man - Rolf Harris was planning to release a "revenge" album that he has written inside prison.

Harris, 85, has told friends he wants to release the comeback album Justice For All as an act of defiance against his victims, reported UK newspaper The Sun.

Reported tracks include “Can't Keep That Dingo Down” and “A Bird In the Hand (Is Worth Two in the Bush).”

“Woodworm”, a 2015 song that Harris wrote inside prison includes the lyrics, “Come and join the feeding frenzy girls” which are thought to be in reference to his victims and ‘compensation culture’. At the time, the lawyer acting for his victim, Liz Dux, suggested that there had been no change in his outlook or behaviour and called for Harris to have his chance of parole taken away.

Professor Roderic Broadhurst, an expert in criminology and criminal justice at ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, says that while some may be offended by the album or lyrics Harris’ parole is not determined on whether the album is “distasteful” or “inappropriate” but on his behaviour in prison and his risk of re-offending on release.

When we asked Broadhurst if releasing an album like this could affect the singer's parole, he said that while the “revenge” album might suggest a lack of remorse or acceptance of his conviction, the parole board would look at his risk of re-offending. “Usually parole authorities have the benefit of advice from prison counselors/psychologists etc. who might contextualize these forms of expressions. I am not convinced that they significantly add to his risk of re-offending or suggest he poses a risk to the community.”

Broadhurst says that Harris would appear to be a low risk of recidivism, due to his age, and limited criminal history and so is unlikely to pose a risk to the community.

Professor Broadhurst says that Harris may feel that he is a victim of changing community standards – that “in his day the sort of intimacy he was involved was tolerated or at least not criminalized” - however – “shifts in shame and repugnancy” are also associated with changes in our sensitivity to violence and more broadly crimes of domination.

He says that Harris’s apparent confusion about this might amplify his sense of injustice and “need to revenge his victims and society via his celebrated (now tarnished) artistic/poetic skills.”

Harris is serving a five years and nine months sentence after being convicted of 12 counts of indecent assault against women as young as seven to eight years old.

Under Britain’s parole laws, Harris could be released from jail in May next year.