Quotes

[on being sexually assaulted by Rolf Harris] You think if people react like that, you can see why people don't come forward. I'm 52 and I can handle myself so imagine if I was a seven-year-old child, or 12 or 17. I'm not saying just if it's someone famous, but imagine if it was your dad, uncle or teacher. The kind of reaction I have had, I found so upsetting. I was upset by the outpouring of misogyny and hatred and you know 'who would want to assault Vanessa Feltz'.

[on Rolf Harris] I didn't want to break up a marriage, I didn't want to have a terrible effect on his career, and also I thought it wasn't that serious: after all I'd managed to stop it in the nick of time. I regret it because I didn't know that it was happening to lots of other people. If I had known, I suppose I would have reacted differently. I'd be sitting there as he'd be telling hilarious jokes at the introduction of say a charity event and I'd be thinking 'should I laugh, shouldn't I laugh, this is a very warped and strange thing'.

We continue to live in a culture in which fame buys you immunity from the law, common courtesy and good manners. Let's hope the Jimmy Savile allegations and the bravery of the women who waived anonymity to make them destroy for ever the notion that fame and fortune confer on any human being the right to act as a sexual predator.