Maggie Kirkpatrick, the actor convicted, then cleared of child sexual assault charges dating back 30 years, says her television persona as a brutal prison officer was used against her during reporting of court proceedings.
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Kirkpatrick, 74, played prison warder Joan "The Freak" Ferguson in the long running television drama, Prisoner. Court appearances were juxtaposed with "brutal moments" taken from episodes of Prisoner.
"Was it Maggie Kirkpatrick accused of this crime or was it Joan Ferguson? The lines were very blurred. Basically it was bad journalism."
In an interview on Friday with Craig Bennett of Studio Ten, Kirkpatrick refused to revisit the allegations except to say they were distressing beyond belief.
She struggled with her emotions as she was asked how she broke the news of the abuse charges to her daughter and grandchildren.
"With some difficulty," she answers eventually. "But at that point they were as staunch as they are today. My granddaughter said she had never seen me quite so vulnerable."
In August Kirkpatrick was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault and one count of committing a gross act on a person under 16.
She was given an 18-month community corrections order, involving 100 hours of community service.
In early December Judge Geoffrey Chettle set aside the conviction and dismissed all three charges, saying he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt.
During her appeal hearing Kirkpatrick denied touching the 14-year-old in 1984. Kirkpatrick said she had brought the girl to her Prahran house for a home-cooked meal as an act of kindness, to give a disturbed person "a little home life".
Kirkpatrick would not revisit the events of that night but said her daughter had feared for her health when told of the original guilty verdict.
"My daughter's reaction to that when she was phoned and told that, she said, 'Have you got a paramedic handy?' because given my heart condition, she really thought that would do me. But like my mother I think I'm made of sterner stuff and I got through to the next round."
"They are pretty awful words, guilty, not guilty, charges, offences, sexual offences . . . good god."
Kirkpatrick said she bore no bitterness to her accuser. "Why? My life has been shortened already by two years, I don't intend to shorten it any further."
But she was scathing of the media which had reported the court proceedings. She said she had never experienced such pain and cruelty as that foisted upon her by the "mass media".
"I felt sick and I felt betrayed and these people had the temerity to judge me. They don't know me, they didn't know the full facts and they chose to vilify me like that."
