Robert Hughes sentenced to 10 years jail: Former Hey Dad! star to serve at least six
THE former child actor who first brought Robert Hughes’ abuse to public attention today said she was “pretty happy” to see him sentenced to 10 years in jail.
ROBERT Hughes victim Sarah Monahan spoke of her happiness today after the paedophile TV star was sentenced to 10 years in prison for child sex abuse.
The 37-year-old, who played his daughter in the 1980s sitcom Hey Dad!, told Ben Fordham she was pleased he hadn’t just been given “a slap on the wrist”.
Judge Peter Zahra fixed a total sentence of 10 years and nine months before a packed room in the Sydney District Court.
The 65-year-old, who the court heard “fears for his safety” in jail, will be eligible for parole in April 2020.
Ms Monahan, who first said she had been abused by an unnamed pervert in Woman’s Day and later named him on A Current Affair, said she was grateful to the media for helping convict Hughes.
She said on 2GB this afternoon: “I’m pretty happy. It’s pretty good for what it was.
“I needed to speak up and I didn’t have a reputation to worry about. I don’t think it was that brave.”
Ms Monahan said being the subject of the case had been “pretty intense, especially in the beginning when people were saying name and shame or shut up”.
“People thought we were doing it for money, publicity or some unknown reason. Now everybody understands we weren’t making it up. I’m happy that all the girls have been believed. It’s a good day.
She said Hughes’ behaviour on set was so brazen that people were just numb to it, and it was only when she was taking acting classes, and came across people suffering just like she did, that she decided to speak up.
“He turned me off acting altogher and then I was terrified it was all going to be swept under the carpet,” she said.
But then when he was finally charged, she was ‘elated’.
Asked by Fordham what she hoped would happen to him behind bars, Ms Monahan said: “I hope he comes to the realisation that he shouldn’t have done what he did.
“I’m not a vengeful person, but I do hope he realises he’s a very very bad man.”
However, speaking outside court, Hughes’s lawyer Greg Walsh had said that the actor was “devastated” but planned to appeal the gravity of the sentence.
“My reaction is that it’s a very severe sentence. It’s still a bit of a shock at this stage,” he told reporters.
“I think you would describe it as a crushing sentence.”
He said they would be appealing both the sentence and conviction.
Hughes’ celebrity agent wife Robyn Gardiner, who stood by her husband during his six-week trial, was nowhere to be seen at the Downing Centre Court today
Family members of the victims hugged in court as the sentence was handed down
Judge Zahra described the sexual and indecent acts the actor had perpetrated on four young girls in the 1980s and 1990s.
The 10 charges, he said, “represented a systematic pattern of sexual abuse of vulnerable young girls”.
Hughes “took advantage of social and familial” engagements to carry out his brazen and predatory behaviour, he said.
The court heard how Hughes twice crept into the bedroom of a teenager while he was at a dinner party at her parents’ home. Intruding on the “safety and sanctuary” of her room, he sexually assaulted her as she lay in bed.
She was around 14 or 15 years old.
In another assault, Judge Zahra said Hughes forced another victim to touch him while she was staying at his north shore home in the early 1980s, later calling her a “good girl”.
She was around six to eight years old.
Then, while playing the father Martin Kelly in the popular TV show, he exposed himself to a young girl on set.
Judge Zahra said Hughes “exploited the naivete” of these girls, and used his position of authority to “ensure their compliance”. This also ensured they remained silent for many years, the judge said.
Hughes maintained his innocence throughout the trial after pleading not guilty to 11 charges.
The jury returned a guilty verdict on nine of the charges against Hughes, before taking one more day to find him guilty of a final indecency charge dating back to 1990.
They were unable to reach a verdict on one charge of indecency.
NSW Police established Strike Force Ruskin in 2010 after receiving a formal complaint of sexual abuse against Hughes.
As the allegations against him became public, another four alleged victims were identified and officers would go on to interview more than 100 witnesses across four countries.
The inquiry was quickly broadened to include previous claims of abuse stretching as far back as 1982.
According to one alleged victim, that complaint was “swept under the carpet” at the time — the paperwork was also lost over the decades that followed, which set back the Ruskin investigation.
Detectives travelled several times across the world to gather statements and meet witnesses.
In September 2010, they went to four cities in the US, including Los Angeles and New York where they took statements from people who had worked on the show. The original complainant was also interviewed by the strike force detectives in Texas.
In October 2010, the alleged victim who said her complaint was “swept under the carpet” travelled to Sydney from Brisbane to be reinterviewed by police.
The investigation’s funding was questioned at several points by senior police. In mid-2011, the police brief of evidence, which contains more than 100 witness statements, was handed to the Director of Public Prosecutions for their consideration. From there, taskforce officers waited for the determination.
In June 2012, detectives travelled to Melbourne to interview a journalist who had spoken to some of the complainants.
In July, 2012 the DPP ruled police had enough evidence to proceed with 11 charges and an arrest warrant was issued for Hughes.
NSW officers then contacted the Australian Federal Police and the London Metropolitan Police in a bid to locate Hughes, finding him in London.
“He spends a lot of time between the UK and Singapore — he travels between them quite regularly,’’ an officer said. “It wasn’t overly difficult to locate him.”
Hughes was arrested and granted bail in London in August 2012, following a two-year international investigation.
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