Alleged victim’s testimony heard in committal hearing for AFL great Carl Ditterich

Former AFL great Carl Ditterich has come face to face with the woman he is accused of sexually abusing 1980s, when she was a child.

Carl Ditterich is facing a series of charges over the alleged assault of a teenage girl in Heatherton in 1985.

Diary entries of the woman accusing Carl Ditterich of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager will form part of the case against the AFL great.

Ditterich fronted the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning for a committal hearing after he was charged with historic child sex offences in June.

He is facing three counts of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency in the presence of a child under 16.

It is alleged the 78-year-old former St Kilda and Melbourne Football Club player assaulted a girl in Moorabbin in Melbourne’s southeast in August 1985.

The alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was the first of eight witnesses who will give evidence during the committal hearing.

Ditterich played in the ruck for the St Kilda Football Club.

Her diary and two statements she gave to police will form part of the prosecution’s evidence, the court heard.

The court heard the woman’s second police statement involved a change in recollections.

The court was closed for the woman to give evidence and she did so in front of the football star.

Alleged victims are offered the choice to speak to the court from an online link or behind a screen, rather than in front of their alleged attacker, but the court was told that was “not required”.

Carl Ditterich battles Don Scott in the 1971 grand final between Hawthorn and St Kilda.

The hearing marked the first day of a committal hearing where Magistrate Stephen Ballek will determine whether the case has enough evidence to go before a jury.

Ditterich — who now lives in Moama on the NSW side of the Murray River — played 285 games for St Kilda and Melbourne between 1963 and 1980.

He was a feared ruckman and appeared before the VFL tribunal 19 times and was suspended for a total of 30 games during his career, missing St Kilda’s only premiership in 1966.

Ditterich was inducted into the St Kilda Hall of Fame in 2003 and the AFL Hall of Fame in 2004.