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Perth rips up Rolf Harris plaque

Perth has removed Rolf Harris’s most visible honour from its main CBD street in the latest move to purge any memory of the convicted pedophile from his home turf.

The City of Perth council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to remove the 1959 commemorative plaque on St Georges Terrace dedicated to the disgraced entertainer, 84, who is serving a three-year jail sentence in Wandsworth prison in southwest London for historic child sex offences.

Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi says the plaque was removed early on Wednesday morning to avoid inconveniencing pedestrians during peak times.

The spot outside the BankWest building where it used to lie has been neatly covered with pavers.

The City of Perth says the plaque has been put into storage.

The town of Bassendean, where Harris was born, recently voted to dig up a footpath plaque outside his childhood home but it was stolen on the night of the vote after a vandal sprayed it over with the word “pedo”.

The council also stripped him of his freemanship and removed paintings and a portrait from council chambers.

Harris has also lost his place in the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame and his British Academy of Film and Television Arts Fellowship.

He could also lose his Commander of the Order of the British Empire and his Order of Australia.

Harris’s former school Perth Modern has removed several of his artworks from the walls.

Perth’s Edith Cowan University will discuss at its next council meeting in August whether to rescind an honorary doctorate awarded to Harris in 2000, but has already removed his artworks from display.

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