Dearest Emma,
I, for one, am simply not in a position to know the mind of the witnesses, but I find it bizarre that all these apparently public episodes in front of other people occurred, and yet remained unnoticed,
I don't think they all did. Apparently he had a reputation in the entertainment industry and that can only be because someone, somewhere saw or heard something and passed it on to a friend etc[
No - I'm NOT 'kidding'. Reputation is not proof...... we've discussed that. You have heard of hearsay evidence?
Where are the media/entertainment etc people present or involved in or near an episode or 'in the know' who 'covered it up'? Are they flooding forward to say they knew all along but said nothing? Surely not all would be so in fear of their job etc now as to not come forward? Surely there are many who would now come forward and offer substantial evidence rather than 'he had a reputation'.
Are you kidding? Absolutely no way. For starters, there would be a lot of them (most of them)[color=#0000ff] who heard it from other people
. Why on earth would they think of going to the police? They have no direct evidence that can help, they would not associate themselves in any way with events.
Next up, you have a few who may have witnessed or who may have suffered unwanted groping.
If you were a witness, and you were in the industry, would you really like to come forward and say-yes, I saw inappropriate behaviour but didn't think to report it to anyone, I just gossiped about it?
The media has been full of righteousness the last year or two over others who did not report cases, there are people having to sit in enquiries now to answer why they didn't 'do something' when they had been told of cases (not even witnessed, just been told). Would you want to out yourself so that you were facing the same sort of wrath?
Make no mistake, whether he walks or not, Harris's career is over. Doesn't matter worth a cracker anyway as he is about 84 and probably semi retired in any case. He has made his money.
But others in the industry won't want their own names linked to this case.
As for the victims-young girls (and boys for that matter) are vulnerable. In the past especially, it would be embarrassing to talk about being groped. Even adult women felt that way. The radio star who wrote the bit in the paper that I read about, where she was groped, I doubt that would ever have seen the light of day had the case against Harris not hit the courts. In fact, she said so herself.
Harris is a high profile pest but I would assume just about every woman here on this forum would have been assaulted in some minor or major way during their life. As a teen, I can clearly remember a couple of upsetting incidents, right out in public, but sneaky so no one could see them. Did I tell anyone? No, I was mortified and I didn't know the men anyway.
I also believe convictions should be based on evidence, but I think in cases of sexual assault(especially from years ago) it can be hard to come by that evidence.
It doesn't mean it didn't happen though.[/color]