"Hey Dad!" star accused of abusing his eight-year old victim then handing her a teddy bear to sleep with.

WARNING: This post deals with sexual abuse allegations and details several disturbing encounters. Some readers may find it distressing.

If you are of my generation just looking at him brings the memories flooding back.

He was the lovable architect, with the kooky secretary and the three cheery kids.

It is hard to equate that stalwart of your childhood with the reports coming out of court yesterday.

The ‘lovable’ Dad in court yesterday was a mere shadow of how we remember him.

Robert Hughes starred in the hit TV series Hey Dad!  in the late 80’s. Yesterday, in a Sydney court he starred in a show all of his own – up against 11 child-sex charges in relation to multiple alleged sexual assaults of young girls in the mid to late 1980s.

The girls’ ages ranged from seven to 15.

The allegations have been played out in the media since 2010 when two former cast members went on a prominent current affairs show accusing Robert Hughes of sexual abuse while they worked together on ‘Hey Dad!’.

At the time, Hughes strenuously denied the claims.

The allegations gained momentum and other women came forward.

Again many of these made headlines. And again Hughes denied the claims.

After a two-year investigation police arrested him in London.

The victims – five young women – will now face their accused in court via video link.

Hughes has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

On the first day of his trial yesterday a packed courtroom heard prosecutor Gina O’Rourke tell the jury of five incidents in which Hughes allegedly indecently assaulted young girls who were sleeping at his home.

She said one of the girls was the daughter of a friend Hughes met though the entertainment and voiceover industry.

The prosecutor described three of the incidents where Hughes allegedly went to the rooms where the young girls were sleeping and put his hand down their pants to touch them, or he forced them to masturbate him during the night.

On one occasion Hughes allegedly told his victim she was a “good girl”.

“He then handed her her teddy and said ‘here’s your teddy, go back to sleep’,” Ms O’Rourke told the court.

The victim’s parents spoke to police and the actor was approached by police in 1996 but he denied the claims.

The SMH reports that:

“The jury were told they would hear from another woman, who saw Hughes walk naked around his home while the neighbourhood children were there.

Another woman would allege Hughes rubbed his erect penis against the side of her face while he administered her eardrops in 1987, the jury heard.

Some victims went to police or told their stories to media in 2010, after seeing another victim’s story on a current affairs show or in a women’s magazine.

The court also heard Hughes told a 15-year-old girl he wanted to have sex with her in 1988 but agreed it was better to wait until she was 16.”

The lawyer acting for Robert Hughes, Greg Walsh told the court that he strenuously denied the charges and that Robert Hughes has been the subject of constant publicity over the last few years, and a victim of rumour and innuendo.

The ABC reports that Greg Walsh said “his client became a popular star of Hey Dad! and became close professionally and socially with other actors in the show.

But he said he did not sexually assault them.

“Mr Hughes denies emphatically each of the allegations,” Mr Walsh said.”

Hughes was extradited from London to Sydney to face these charges.

The trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court is expected to take up to six weeks.