Rolf Harris charged

Various stories about celebrities in the UK preying on children have appeared in the press in recent years - Gary Glitter, Jimmy Savile - but none have had much personal impact on me, since their crimes happened miles away, and in a different cultural milieu. (I have always thought Britain, like Japan, had a somewhat different attitude towards the sexualization of children, mostly because I remember girls as young as 16 in British porn mags like Mayfair, when I was 16 myself, and was an avid consumer of such fare; it was only the British mags that had girls as young as I was in them - Traci Lords notwithstanding. Plus there's David Hamilton - I am not one of those who is of the opinion that his images of young women are fine art). Of the stories to break, the most personally disturbing by far is that of Rolf Harris - who has just been charged with multiple offenses. (Yes, he's an Australian, but has been based in the UK for some time). It brings it home for me because I *saw* Rolf Harris when I was a child, during one of his many live performances in BC; I forget if he came to my elementary school, or performed publicly in Maple Ridge, or if my parents or teachers took me to Vancouver to see him - but I know I did, was in the same room as the man. Though he appears to have targeted teenaged girls, and not eight year old boys or such, reading about it now gives me a bit of a chill: how different would my life have been if I'd been molested by him, or someone else? I did encounter sexual predators as a boy - on two occasions as a young teen was approached by adult men who offered me drinks, tried to pick me up; plus I grew up in an area where Clifford Robert Olson was known to be active. But I never actually WAS molested by anyone, thank God. Glad to read that the UK is cleaning house - sounds like it's well past due. Charlie Smith of the Straight just posted his own reaction the Guardian  report on Rolf Harris' arrest. This is a very sad story - I'm not sure I'll ever again be able to wholly trust anyone who works in the field of children's entertainment....