Former entertainer Rolf Harris granted bail on groping charges

Rolf Harris will be released from prison today after being granted bail on groping charges he's on trial for in a London court.

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

He has been appearing by video link from Stafford Prison where he's been serving time for earlier convictions.

Judge Deborah Taylor told the jury of seven women and five men that Harris would be released from Stafford today after she approved an application for bail on the current charges.

The application was not opposed by the prosecution.

"He will be attending what remains of this trial in person from Monday next week," the judge 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.

Another charge is that he put his hand up the skirt of a 14-year-old girl and touched her on the vagina through her tights as she sought his autograph at a music festival in London in 1971.

The other charge is 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.