Sarah Monahan’s fears as Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes freed from jail
Former child actor Sarah Monahan is on a roller coaster of emotions after Hey Dad! star and convicted child sex offender Robert Hughes was granted parole and will be deported to the UK.
Police & Courts
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Former child actor Sarah Monahan will now throw off the shackles of three decades past after disgraced Hey Dad! star and convicted child sex offender Robert Hughes was granted parole and will be deported to the UK.
Hughes played Monahan’s father, Martin Kelly, on the hit show of the 1980s and 90s and has been incarcerated since 2014 when he was convicted of 10 sexual and indecent assault charges in the 80s.
“I am not scared of him anymore,” Monahan, who played Jennifer on the show, told The Daily Telegraph. “I think it will be a roller coaster of emotions for the next couple of days. Hopefully now I can just be me without having all of this baggage attached, that would be nice. We took convicts from the UK for years, it is their turn to take one back.”
Hughes will now be deported to the UK, where he will spend the rest of his years with his wife, Robyn Gardner, following the State Parole Authority decision to deport him within a fortnight.
Monahan, 45, was the star witness in the trial that saw several other women come forward with similar claims of abuse by Hughes.
She sat through his Parramatta parole hearing last week, flying in from her US home to ensure she could look her perpetrator in the eyes one last time.
“He looked old, like crypt-keeper old,” she said. “He was frail, like if he came towards me I could flick him and he would turn into dust, which is empowering. Abusers always have a hold over their victims but seeing him took the power he had over me away.”
Monahan, who grew up in Sydney’s inner west and has lived in Texas for two decades, continued: “He hasn’t had a single visitor in five years, which has to be lonely. No family and no friends, hopefully prison wasn’t an amazing experience for him. On one hand you want to be the better person and say, ‘I hope jail taught you something’. And then the petty side of you is like, ‘I hope you understand now that no means no’. We were little kids and we had no body autonomy and perhaps he has learnt that in prison. But then you feel like a horrible person for thinking that.”
The TV, film and theatre actor will be free to integrate into the community where he will be monitored now he has been granted parole.
He has been told he must inform Interpol of his address, holiday plans and movements when in the UK.
Monahan though has many questions.
“My question is, while he was here in Australia, he wasn’t allowed to have any contact with the victims but what happens in the UK?” she explained. “Is he then allowed to send harassing emails? He would be pretty stupid if he did, I am sure he just wants to move on too. Is he allowed to travel? Can he go to Thailand or the US? He couldn’t come back to Australia but could he go anywhere else?”
The 73 year-old has vociferously denied the sex claims.
He has been behind bars since May 2014 for sexually and indecently assaulting four girls, including young co-star Sarah Monahan, over a period of 20 years in the 1980s and 1990s.
In mid-March 2020 the SPA refused his release for the second time arguing he “presents as an unacceptable risk to community safety” amid concerns for the complexities and seriousness of his offences.
The board members also called for a comprehensive psychological assessment of his risk of sexual reoffending and an additional report from Community Corrections.
Hughes was handed a minimum sentence of six years and has been eligible for parole since April 2020.
Hughes, a former Sydney Morning Herald cadet, was extradited from the United Kingdom in 2012 to face the court proceedings.
He held dual citizenship but denounced Australian citizenship in December 2019.
The father of one daughter and grandfather to two holds the support of family members, sources say they have not visited him for some time.
His celebrity agent wife has promised to support him and arranged for him to live with her in London upon his return.
Whilst she maintains his innocence, she has said she will ensure he does not have unsupervised contact with children and will encourage him to take up counselling.
Hughes will be required to report to police within three days of his return to the UK, and thereafter annually, or within three days of personal information changing – or face six months in jail.
He will be required to provide passport and banking details and must
notify police of any intention to travel outside the UK.
He must also provide details of where he resides and where he regularly stays if different to his home address and inform police of whenever he stays at a property where a child resides.
A Corrective Services report conducted in April labels Hughes a “categorical denier who lacks victim empathy.”
A psychologist on 14 October, 2019 diagnosed moderate density criminogenic needs and concluded significant social influences.
While in NSW Hughes must not contact, communicate with, watch, stalk, harass or intimidate the victims or their families.
He cannot be in the company of anyone under the age of 16, unless accompanied by a responsible adult, or visit Lane Cove, Hornsby, Canada Bay, or Ku-Ring-Gai.
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