Former entertainer Rolf Harris released from prison on bail over groping charges

Rolf Harris has been released from prison after being granted bail on groping charges in a London court.

The entertainer was released from Stafford Prison today.

The 87-year-old is before a jury at Southwark Crown Court on four indecent assault charges involving three women who accused him of groping them when they were teenagers in 1971, 1978 and 1983.

Harris has been appearing via video link from prison where he's been serving time for earlier convictions, but Judge Deborah Taylor told the jury he would appear in person while on bail.

"He will be attending what remains of this trial in person from Monday next week," Judge Taylor said.

Two of the indecent assault charges relate to allegations Harris groped the breast of a 16-year-old girl and ran his hand up between her thighs in the back of a taxi at a celebrity sports event in Cambridge in 1978.

He is also accused of putting his hand up the skirt of a 14-year-old girl and touching her on the vagina through her tights as she sought his autograph at a music festival in London in 1971.

The final charge relates to a claim that he groped the breast of a 13-year-old girl at the BBC Television Centre in 1983 and said to her, "Do you often get molested on a Saturday morning?"

Harris was granted the right to appear by video-link from jail due to his age and state of health.