Robert Hughes wore disguise at Long Bay jail before release to parole

Disgraced Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes’ wore a hat, sunglasses and a headscarf to disguise himself behind bars before he was deported to the UK.

Paedophile and Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes would don sunnies and a headscarf to try to conceal his identity each time he left his prison cell, seemingly thinking he still had star power after six years behind bars.

Or maybe he was trying to avoid a repeat of his 2014 welcome at Goulburn Jail, when inmates pelted milk cartons full of excrement at him, leaving him “covered head to toe in human waste”.

Hughes was this week released from the Metropolitan Special Programs Centre at Long Bay, after spending more than six years in prison for the vile sexual abuse of four young girls spanning 20 years.

He is to be deported to Britain to live with his wife, the acclaimed actor agent Robyn Gardiner, after renouncing his Australian citizenship in 2019.

The 73-year-old will be free to integrate in the community after being surrounded by the steel gates of NSW prisons.

Former Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes outside the Downing Centre court in Sydney in 2013. Picture: Dan Himbrechts

While his final months inside Long Bay were mundane and repetitive, his faeces welcome to Goulburn jail in 2014 reportedly left him in tears.

A special wire screen dubbed by prison lags “the Hey Dad! wall”, went up after that incident.

His final months inside Long Bay were mundane and repetitive. Picture: Monique Harmer

He was later moved to MSPC — a “working jail” with a minimum-security classification.

Here he enjoyed more freedom but jail sources say he “kept to himself” and “didn’t really associate with anyone”.

He was released from his cell at 7am each day and would spend his time working or in the yard, walking around alone.

“He would wrap his head in a scarf, put on a pair of sunnies and then put on a hat,” one source said.

Robert Hughes in Hey Dad!

Hughes with one of his victims, fellow actor Sarah Monahan.

“He looked to be concealing his identity. He didn’t want anyone knowing who he was.”

When he wasn’t roaming the yard, Hughes was at work in a recycling job inside the jail.

He was paid a weekly wage for his work, which would allow him to purchase lollies, cake mixes, noodles, sauces, tinned food, rice or newspapers from the “buy-ups” scheme.

While sources said he had an “air of entitlement” about him, he was a well-behaved prisoner by all accounts.

But, just prior to his release, a psychologist prepared an unflattering ­report for the State Parole Authority that refers to the offender “as a categorical denier who lacks victim empathy”.