‘Rolf Harris molested me when I was a teenager’ says traumatised Blue Peter legend
Yvette Fielding said she was sexually assaulted by Rolf Harris (Picture: Tim Roney/Getty Images)
Blue Peter legend Yvette Fielding has recalled a harrowing experience with Rolf Harris when he ‘squeezed and patted’ her bottom while she worked at the BBC.
Fielding became the youngest-ever presenter of the children’s show aged 18 in 1987 before leaving five years later.
She has now spoken about being molested by the late sex predator Harris and a ‘grotesque’ encounter with the late paedophile Jimmy Savile while working on Blue Peter.
Fielding, now 55, said it was ‘very confusing and shocking’ when Harris sexually assaulted her. She had been left alone in a TV studio with him.
She recalled to The Sun: ‘It’s just bizarre to think Rolf Harris was squeezing and patting my bottom and I am standing there, thinking, “I don’t know what to do.”
‘Other people in the industry must have known what he was like and you left me alone in the studio with him. That shouldn’t have happened.
Harris was convicted of a string of sexual assault crimes (Picture: Alex Huckle/GC Images)
She also described a ‘grotesque’ experience with Savile while working at the BBC (Picture: John Gooch/Shutterstock)
Savile died before he could face justice for his crimes (Picture: Michael Putland/Getty Images)
‘I must have been 18 or 19. I think a lot of them did know.’
Harris was a family favourite for decades for shows including Animal Hospital before being convicted of a string of sexualassaults in June 2014.
He died of neck cancer and old age in May last year, aged 93, several years after he was released from jail. He served three years of his five years and nine month sentence.
She was left alone with Harris as a teenager and said that should have ‘never happened’ (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
Fielding had a similarly horrific meeting with Savile, who is now believed to be one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders but managed to conceal his crimes until after his death.
She said: ‘He took my hand and started stroking it. “Look into my eyes,” he said, “And tell me what you’re thinking.”
‘He was grotesque. I just don’t understand why the BBC allowed him to get away with that for as long as he did.’
Savile died aged 84 in 2011, just under a year before his numerous sexual crimes were exposed as part of Operation Yewtree – police spoke to hundreds of victims.
Fielding was Blue Peter’s youngest-ever presenter aged just 18 (Picture: John Gooch/Shutterstock)
She went on to host shows including the Most Haunted series (Picture: Mike Lawn/Shutterstock)
After leaving Blue Peter, Fielding hosted a string of BBC shows including The Heaven And Earth Show, The General and City Hospital.
She also presented the Most Haunted series along with her husband Karl Beattie.
Fielding’s other TV appearances include I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and Through the Keyhole.
Metro.co.uk has contacted the BBC for comment.
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