Australian make-up artist Suzi Dent speaks about Rolf Harris’ wandering hands

Australian make-up artist Suzi Dent, who claims she was molested by disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris, has opened up on her harrowing story.

Suzi, who’s appearing on ITVX’s documentary Rolf Harris: Hiding in Plain Sight, spent a day with Rolf when she was 23 years old and revealed he touched her legs inappropriately throughout the seven-hour shift.

Speaking to hosts Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway, Suzi explained she’d told her boss what had happened at the end of the day and she replied, “I thought you knew. His nickname is the Octopus and this is what he does to make-up artists.”

Suzi went on to say that when it came to the point where she was meant to remove Rolf’s make-up, she instead hid in a cupboard.

“We used to put pancake make-up on people and we’d obviously remove the make-up, but there was no way I was going to go in my little make up room because it was me and him. I found a broom cupboard down the corridor and I watched through a crack where he was stood outside my room. There was no way I was going to walk in there with him. I had to protect myself because no one was going to protect me.”

Harris (Centre) at the peak of his career in the 1970s, meeting Princess Anne and left actress Noele Gordon who is the subject of an ITV Drama, ‘Nolly’.

She added, “I knew that he would have gone much further than he did if it was just me and him in a room.” Suzi was a character witness in Rolf’s trial. He couldn’t be prosecuted in the UK as the alleged offence took place in Australia.

On waiving her right to anonymity in 2019, Suzi said, “We were living at the time in what we called the culture of disbelief where women were seen but not heard and back then this course was groundbreaking in that women of historical sexual crimes were listened to, heard and believed for the first time ever.”

Ben asked if the incident had affected her career and Suzi replied, “It had more of an effect on me as a woman. A lot of the uniform was shorts – he was the last man who ever touched me without my permission.

“I dressed down, wore baggy clothes for the rest of my life. I felt like maybe I was chosen because of what I looked like. By covering my body, I felt like I moved through life a lot safer.”

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