Shamed entertainer Rolf Harris has been sentenced to five years and nine months behind bars for a string of sex attacks against young girls.

He was flanked by guards in the dock as the sentence was handed down. One of his four victims was seven or eight years old, and the rest were teenagers aged between 14 and 19.

Harris (84) was found guilty last Monday of 12 counts of indecent assault between 1968 and 1986.

During the seven-week trial at Southwark Crown Court in London, prosecutor Sasha Wass described Harris as a ''sinister pervert''.

She claimed he used his fame to get close to young women and girls, adding that he had a ''dark side'' and was a ''Jekyll and Hyde character''.

The main complainant against Harris was the best friend of the singer's daughter Bindi.

The woman, who is now 49, told how she was first molested by Harris after she stepped out of a shower during a holiday in Hawaii in 1978 with Bindi and the rest of her family.

He then groped her again on the beach before carrying out further attacks on her in the bedroom of his family home in Australia - as Bindi slept nearby - and the assaults continued back in Britain.

In impact statements read out in court, the woman said "He made me feel dirty, grubby and disgusting. He had a hold over me, made me a quivering wreck. I was scared of him. He used and abused me...I felt worthless".

Another victim said "I have never felt safe since...I've developed eating disorders and become an alcoholic. He took from me my essence".

A third said "I was an innocent. He took away my childhood" and a fourth said "He treated me like a toy he had played with for his own pleasure".

Reporter Enda Brady was inside court when he was sentenced.

Some allegations involved attacks on a girl in Portsmouth in 1968-1969, a teenager in Cambridge some time between 1975 and 1979 and an Australian teenager called Tonya Lee who was molested in a London pub in 1986.

Harris had arrived at court accompanied by Bindi, and made his way inside the building without commenting to reporters. In the dock, he had a small, multi-coloured suitcase on a chair behind him.

His wife, Alwen, was not in court as she was apparently unwell.

Harris went to court in a boat this morning 

Harris' lawyer Sonia Woodley told the court that despite his convictions he had led an " upright life" for the last 20 years, and had done "much good".

Harris had earlier left his riverside home in Berkshire by boat as he made his way to London to hear his fate.

Since his conviction Harris has been stripped of his BAFTA fellowship, lost an honorary degree from the University of East London and also faces losing his CBE.

Police are now looking into dozens more claims from alleged victims in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Harris' multimillion-pound fortune could also be badly dented by legal costs and compensation claims as a result of his guilty verdict.

No trial over alleged child sex images

Meanwhile he will not stand trial over claims he downloaded sexual images of children. He had 33 such photographs in a much larger collection of thousands of adult pornographic images, according to prosecutors.

But Harris' legal team told the judge Mr. Justice Sweeney the models in the photos were over 18, according to their identity documents provided by website bosses in the Ukraine.

They also maintained the entertainer accidentally accessed the images when he clicked on links from mainstream porn sites.

Prosecutor Sasha Wass said "In the light of the 12 unanimous convictions on the counts that Mr. Harris faced, the Crown Prosecution Service has decided it is no longer in the public interest to proceed with a trial on these four charges".

Prosecutors claimed he had looked at a website called "teeny tiny girlfriends" and accessed a picture of a girl who was "extremely young in appearance".

Harris also allegedly clicked on other words including "youngest teen porn", "my little nieces" and "young teen girls".

Expert opinion gathered by both sides disagreed over whether the images were of underage girls, with the prosecution claiming one was of a child under 13.

This was denied by the defence, which maintained that all the models were adults and that the word "teen" could refer to someone of 18 or 19 years of age.

As the counts were debated during legal argument, Ms. Wass said "If it was an accident, it appears to be an accident he had a number of times".

Both sides agreed he had clicked on "young teen galleries" and "Russian virgins" while looking at porn. Prosecutors alleged he deleted the images because he knew they were illegal, but again the defence denied this.

Dawn Penfold, who has been representing victims at Southwark Crown Court, says the entertainer needs to show remorse.