Sarah Monahan is talking.
After decades and decades of staying quiet, she is finally free to say what she wants.
And what she wants to say is: Protect your children. Protect them from an adult world where they don’t belong. Protect them from predators.
Who was protecting Sarah when she played pig-tailed Jenny Kelly on Channel Seven’s hit sitcom Hey Dad! in the 80s and 90s?
That’s a matter of opinion.
Australia watched her grow-up, we watched her change from a little girl into a teenager until the show finished in 1993. But there was a lot we didn’t see.
We didn’t see that behind the scenes, there was an abuser hiding in plain sight.
A man who has now been convicted of 10 charges relating to sexual and indecent acts perpetrated on four young girls in the 1980s and 1990s.
That man, as Australia now knows, is Robert Hughes who played Sarah’s father on the hit Australian sitcom Hey Dad!. And Sarah, who was repeatedly told by adults she trusted to “simmer down”, to “stay quiet”, is not going to stop talking about him.
She’s talking about him in her newly-released memoir, Allegedly, and she’s talking about him to Mia Freedman on this latest episode of No Filter:
You can listen to her talking about the perception she had made up her story for money, here:
Robert Hughes appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal in NSW, and his appeal was dismissed. He has now petitioned the High Court to overturn his conviction.
But Sarah has already lost too much by speaking out to ever be silenced again.
Top Comments
I respect your choices for your reasons but just for the record - I think you would be an amazing mother - you have so many beautiful qualities to give a child - you are kind, beautiful, protective and insightful - I think you would not allow history to repeat itself because you have committed and made huge sacrifices to ensure it doesn't in many parts of your life. Brave beautiful lady! xx
I cant even Imagine what it was like for you as a small child to go to work knowing there was nobody to tell or protect you ,, even coming home to your own "mother" an still having to deal with it all alone :( I wish you all the healing an love ,, jus know that people hear your pain an voice now maybe you can be the voice for all the other little girls that have to deal with pedo's Good Luck & hugs you have been unbelievably brave you still are :) xoxo oh an you deserve every cent you were paid an more