He was once a much loved on-screen Australian father. Now Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes is a “broken man”, having been found guilty of sexually and indecently assaulting young girls.
After his earlier defiance, it was a different mood on Tuesday when a jury found Hughes guilty of a 10th charge at Sydney’s District Court on Tuesday
While on Monday Hughes stood up and yelled, “I am innocent” after being convicted of nine charges, on Tuesday the actor said nothing as the final verdict was handed down.
Hughes was “truly a broken man”, his lawyer Greg Walsh told reporters outside court.
The actor has always denied allegations he abused five girls between the 1980s and 1990s.
Mr Walsh said the 65-year-old “maintains his innocence” and that he expected his client would appeal against the verdicts.
But head of the sex crimes squad, Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec, said the verdicts were a “testament to the bravery of the victims”.
Allegations against Hughes were first made public in 2010 when one of the victims did a paid interview with the Nine Network’s A Current Affair.
Strike Force Ruskin was then established to investigate allegations, with officers interviewing more than 200 people.
In December 2012, Hughes was extradited to Sydney from London, where he was living with his long-term partner and theatrical agent Robyn Gardiner.
During the course of his much-publicised trial, which began on February 24, the jury heard a range of allegations from five women, as well as some of their family members.
One victim described how she came to dread Hughes’s visits to her parents’ home in the 1980s, saying she had woken on one occasion to find the actor with his hand in her pants.
“I was completely shocked and scared so I just closed my eyes,” she said.
Another told how Hughes had forced her to touch him when she was staying at his North Shore home in the early 80s.
Eventually, when she was seven she told her parents: “I don’t like the games Robert plays with me”.
The family went to police in 1986 with the allegations but eventually decided not to pursue the matter through the courts, fearing it would be too traumatising for their daughter.
The court heard from three women who worked with the actor on the set of Hey Dad! where he played the father Martin Kelly.
They painted a picture of a man who liked to lie in his dressing room in various levels of undress.
“It looked like he was waiting for someone to walk in on him and see him naked,” one woman said.
It was while on set that Hughes committed an act of indecency on a 12-year-old girl by exposing himself and “wiggling his hips”.
Of the 11 charges Hughes faced the jury found him guilty of 10, which included two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and seven counts of indecent assault.
However, they were unable to come to a decision on one of the counts of committing an act of indecency.
Hughes will face a sentencing hearing before Justice Peter Zahra on May 2.
By Lauren Farrow, AAP
