Friends back Rolf Harris in face of claims Rhonda Burchmore says Harris was a harmless flirt. Picture: Marie Nirme Source: The Sunday Telegraph Friends have come out to support Australian entertainer Rolf Harris after sex abuse claims. SCOTLAND Yard's Australian investigation into Rolf Harris allegedly centres on a visit by an amateur theatre troupe to the UK in the 1980s. A Wollongong mother-of-three has made claims to UK police about Harris' behaviour while on an eight-week tour with Sydney's Carlton-based theatre group Shopfront in 1986. But Harris' supporters and friends have, for the first time, come out in support of the 83-year-old, telling The Sunday Telegraph he is innocent and that the stress of the investigation has aged him by a decade. Harris has twice been interviewed by UK police in relation to alleged sex offences. He was questioned, but not charged, as part of Operation Yewtree, sparked by revelations entertainer Jimmy Savile was a child sex predator. Harris vehemently denies any wrongdoing and the allegations against him are unrelated to Savile's conduct. Detectives from Scotland Yard's child abuse investigation command have been in Australia to see witnesses. The Wollongong woman is believed to have also taped an interview with Channel 9's A Current Affair. She said she was 13 when an alleged incident occurred. She claimed Harris, who was a close friend of the group's then artistic director Cathy Henkel, picked the group up from Heathrow Airport with wife Alwen Hughes. The troupe went to rehearse, checked into their hotel and met Harris that night for dinner, she claims. "People were singing and telling stories," the woman said. Her allegations relate to conduct she claims occurred during the dinner. The woman said she did not tell anybody about the alleged incident at the time because she wasn't sure it represented a crime. She did not contact local police until she discovered Harris was being investigated in the UK. "I'm happy to tell my story (now); it might encourage more people to come out," the woman said. Ms Henkel said she would not comment on the claims because Scotland Yard were investigating. Well-known performer Paul Capsis is understood to have been on the same Shopfront tour but his manager Deborah Tobias declined to comment. Shopfront co-founder Errol Bray said he remembered the Wollongong woman but did not know of the allegation. "Not that I knew (Harris), but Cathy (Henkel) always talked about him with enormous regard," he said. There certainly wouldn't be any lapse on her part. Friends of Harris have broken their silence to defend him, saying the Wollongong woman's claims and those of Wisemans Ferry woman Lauren Martell were "utter, utter rubbish." Ms Martell was interviewed by UK detectives on May 2 about an alleged incident in a West End recording studio in the early 1990s. But British musician Dana Gillespie, for whose 1993 album Methods of Release Harris was recording backing didgeridoo when Ms Martell's alleged incident took place, dismissed her story. "I know all the recording sessions that he's been to (for me)," Gillespie, 64, said. Never has a studio that I've been in had children ... I'm amazed that Scotland Yard are wasting their time to do this. He's the cleanest living man, the most un-rock 'n' roll."The famous entertainer's friend and producer Steve Lima called Ms Martell's claims "completely without foundation." He also brushed off the Wollongong woman's claims, saying Harris had "absolutely no interest in children." "I've seen young girls go up to him on the street and he has a cuddle," Mr Lima said. He's never crossed the line and I simply don't believe that. He said Harris had "aged 10 years in the last six months." "I'm genuinely fearful of this now," he said. I'm fearful that he might take his life. I can assure you, as his pal, he has no interest in children. Harris a 'flirt' but harmless star says THEATRE star Rhonda Burchmore described Rolf Harris as "very flirtatious" when she worked with him and said her husband was jealous at the renowned television performer's behaviour towards her. But Burchmore, now in her early 50s, brushed off the entertainer's antics as harmless. Ms Burchmore met Harris on a number of occasions in her 20s while on the musical and variety television circuit. In 1992, when she was performing in the David Atkins musical Hot Shoe Shuffle at the Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne, she recalls Harris being particularly "cheeky." He was very bold because he was quite flirtatious in front of my husband. I had a few drinks with him but my husband was more worried than I was at the time," she said. I certainly didn't go home and lose sleep over it.