Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes has been found guilty of sexually and indecently assaulting young girls.
HE may have once been Australia's best-loved TV father on the top-rating sitcom Hey Dad! but off-screen Robert Hughes was a serial sex fiend preying on underage girls.
Those devastating revelations finally hit home yesterday when the 65-year-old actor was convicted of sexually assaulting three girls.
FROM YESTERDAY: JURY FINDS ROBERT HUGHES GUILTY
Robert Hughes and his wife Robyn Gardiner outside court / Picture: Cameron Richardson Source: News Corp Australia
Yesterday a jury, which had listened to six weeks of chilling evidence, convicted Hughes of nine of 11 counts of sexual assault involving the girls, aged about seven, 11 and 15.
The jurors will return today to continue deliberating over charges involving two other girls after being told by Judge Peter Zahra that he would accept majority verdicts.
Julie McGregor and Robert Hughes from Hey Dad! Source: News Corp Australia
This was no script for a happy families sitcom. It was raw, real-life drama. Up-and-coming Crown prosecutor Gina O'Rourke did not mince words when she cross-examined Hughes.
"You liked females seeing your penis," she said to him during one tense exchange.
Hughes replied: "You are wrong."
Ms O'Rourke: "You got a thrill exposing your genitalia."
Hughes: "I do not."
Ms O'Rourke: "You believed you were the star of the show, which entitled you to do whatever you wanted."
Hughes: "No, I did not."
It was a court case that had captivated the country.
Wife Robyn Gardner and daughter Jessica / Picture: Bradley Hunter Source: News Corp Australia
Former Hey Dad! star Simone Buchanan / Picture: Ross Schultz Source: News Corp Australia
Hughes' wife, Robyn Gardiner, is part of Australian theatre royalty, with a celebrity client list that includes elite Hollywood stars such as Cate Blanchett.
While Gardiner has stood resolutely by him, the emotions got to her yesterday and she lashed out with her handbag at a photographer outside court.
The trial's witnesses included cast and crew from the Channel 7 show.
Robert Hughes, Rachael Beck and Matthew Krok of Hey Dad! in 1992 Source: News Limited
Hughes' daughter, Jessica, 36, returned from London to stand up for her father, disputing evidence given by two of her childhood friends that her father had abused them during sleepovers. NSW Police established Strike Force Ruskin in 2010 after receiving a formal complaint of sexual abuse against Hughes. It came from a young actor on Hey Dad! who claimed she was lying on her stomach drawing pictures at Seven's studios when Hughes entered the room, stood in front of the mirror and when he knew she was looking, he undid his belt buckle and his pants hit the floor.
Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes outside court / Picture: Justin Lloyd Source: News Corp Australia
The alleged incident, recounted to co-star Simone Buchanan, is one of the charges the jury is still considering.
When the allegations became public, four more alleged victims came forward.
In mid-2011, the detectives' brief of evidence, which contained more than 100 witness statements, was handed to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and in July 2012 police received the go-ahead to lay 11 charges for offences dating from 1985 to 1990.
Robert Hughes with his wife Robyn Gardiner and daughter Jessica. Source: News Corp Australia
Robert Hughes from Hey Dad! in 1992. Source: News Limited
Hughes was arrested and granted bail in London in 2012. He has always denied the allegations. The counts on which Hughes was convicted included forcing one girl to lie on his lap and feel his "hard penis" against her face while he administered ear drops for an infection.
She had told the jury she felt scared when Hughes pinned her body to him while swimming in Manly, his penis allegedly hanging out of his costume. Another count involved a girl, aged six to eight, who said she was made to masturbate the actor who "then pulled the doona back over her, called her a 'good girl' and handed her teddy".
The jury will continue deliberating on the 11th count, involving a woman, now 41, who said Hughes had at one point said: "You need to find a place to have sex because I'm far too old to have sex in a bush.''
Robert Hughes arrives at the Downing Centre with his wife Robyn Gardiner / Picture: Adam Taylor Source: News Corp Australia
HUGHES ERUPTS AS VERDICT DELIVERED Lema Samandar
THE shocked jury looked on yesterday as a furious Robert Hughes walked to the edge of the dock and screamed: "I am innocent!"
The outburst came seconds after the jury found him guilty of nine out of 11 historic child offences.
As the verdicts were read out the 1980s celebrity repeatedly shook his head, mouthing: "No, no, no."
As the jury foreman quietly read out "guilty" to each of the seven counts of indecently assaulting a person under 16 and two counts of sexual intercourse with a child, Hughes closed his eyes in anguish and flipped his head back before he erupted.
The jury, who were leaving to deliberate a further hour on the two remaining charges of committing an indecent act, appeared to be shocked at the outburst.
Hughes' wife, Robyn Gardiner, sat quietly with a female friend in the glassed-off public gallery in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court among dozens of journalists.
She stared ahead, said nothing and her face gave away little during the dramatic courtroom scenes but once it was over, she stormed out of the court building. She did not return to see a dishevelled Hughes sitting beside two Corrective Services officers before he was taken into custody.
The shaken and teary 65-year-old retired actor returned to the dock as the jury deliberated on the last two charges, staring down the media.
The jury will continue considering those charges today.
Hughes will be sentenced at a later date.
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