Veteran Australian actress Maggie Kirkpatrick was convicted of sexually abusing a teen female fan in 1984 in Melbourne court this week.
During the hearing today, her lawyer, Justin Hannebery, told the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court that the 75-year-old actress should not be sentenced to jail time and be given a community corrections order, reports News.com.au. The judges will sentence Kirkpatrick in court on Friday.
Prosecutor Sarah Thomas urged the court to put Kirkpatrick on the sex offenders registry because of the nature of the crime.
Kirkpatrick was found guilty of two indecent assault counts and a charge of committing a gross act with a person under the age of 16, reports The Australian Associated Press.
Police told the court that the victim, whose name was never released, was abused at Kirkpatrick’s home in Prahran, a suburb of Melbourne. At the time of the abuse, the victim was a patient at a psychiatric ward and her meeting with Kirkpatrick was arranged by another woman who worked on Prisoner: Cell Block H, the TV show that made Kirkpatrick a star.
“(The victim) recalls Kirkpatrick most disappointed because (the victim) was not experienced enough sexually,” police told the court.
Kirkpatrick had denied the charges, telling the court that they made her “feel quite sick.”
The victim is now a married mother with two children. She only told police about the incident in 2013 because she was told she was “crazy” to make such claims about a celebrity. Despite waiting so long, magistrate Peter Mealy said that the victim was a “witness of truth.”
Kirkpatrick has been acting since the early ‘70s and was recently on stage in an Australian production of Wicked. She is also known for her role on the long-running show Home And Away.
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