Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes found guilty of another sex assault charge
Robert Hughes has been found guilty of a tenth charge of assault for exposing himself to a young girl on the set of the hit sitcom Hey Dad!.
A Sydney jury will be discharged in relation to one of the final eleven charges as they were unable to decide on the charge of inciting a 15-year-old to commit an act of indecency in 1988.
Judge Peter Zahra had said he would have accepted a majority 11 to one verdict.
Robert Hughes spent his first night in prison, and his eyes looked very puffy this morning, as if he had been crying all night in jail, according to 7News reporter Jodie Speers.
He walked back into the dock around 10am, and appeared to mouth "I'm okay, I'm okay" to his wife in public gallery.
Yesterday the jury handed down nine guilty verdicts, to which the 65-year-old screamed out what he had claimed all along: "I am innocent!"
He grabbed the side of the dock, stood up and yelled at the jury, after they declared him guilty on nine charges, which included two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
As Hughes shook his head, his long-term partner and theatrical agent Robyn Gardiner sat expressionless, staring ahead.
Throughout his six-week trial, the jury heard how Hughes - who played Martin Kelly in the hit Australian TV show - abused five girls during the 1980s and 1990s.
One of his victims told the court how Hughes came into her bedroom when she was sleeping at his home on Sydney's north shore in the early 1980s.
She said Hughes forced her to touch him, afterwards saying she was a "good girl" and to go back to sleep.
When she was seven years old, the girl's father told the court how she had come to him saying: "I don't like the games Robert plays with me".
Another victim described how, when she was 15, Hughes began to show a sexual interest in her, kissing her on the lips and saying: "You need to find a place to have sex because I'm far too old to have sex in a bush."
Other women, who weren't victims, also gave evidence for the crown case.
Three of these were former colleagues of the star.
They described various incidents of how Hughes made them feel uncomfortable on the Channel Seven set of the popular show.
He slept naked, rubbed up against them or, in one instance, dropped his pants and exposed himself, they said.
But Hughes has steadfastly denied all the allegations.
He repeatedly said "No, I did not", as the claims were put to him when he took the stand in the final weeks of the trial.
He has been supported throughout by Ms Gardiner and their daughter Jessica Hughes, who both gave evidence in his defence.
Hughes' sentencing proceedings to start on May 2.
