Hey Dad! cast speaks out on A Current Affair.

It’s unfortunate that the 20-year Hey Dad! reunion didn’t happen under happier circumstances.

Instead, tonight we will see them gathered together after their former co-star, 65-year-old Robert Hughes, was found guilty of 10 child sex offences.

And it must be said that this trial and this conviction may never have come to light were it not for the efforts of A Current Affair and Woman’s Day, who first broke the story with an explosive interview with one of Hughes’ accused victims: his co-star Sarah Monahan, who was a child at the time of the abuse.

Despite being convicted on 10 of the 11 charges (the jury could not reach a verdict on the final charge) this week, Hughes — who is awaiting sentencing — maintains his innocence. It is believed he will appeal.

Tonight though, in a special episode of A Current Affair, journalist Tracy Grimshaw will sit down with five formers members of the Hey Dad! cast – including Julie McGregor, Simone Buchanan, Ben Oxenbould and Sarah Monahan – to talk about their years working on the show with a man who is now being held behind bars, convicted of sexual abuse against a number of children.

“Robert Hughes has left a lot of damaged people in his wake and we are speaking with five people tonight – three of whom were intensely close to this investigation from the beginning,” Tracy Grimshaw said in an interview with Lisa Wilkinson on Channel Nine’s Today this morning.

“Sarah Monahan of course, has given up her right to anonymity as a victim of sexual abuse – of child sexual abuse – and she was the one who kicked off our investigation.”

Sarah Monahan – who was just six years old when she began working on the show – was the woman who first spoke out about the abuse that occurred.

In interviews with Woman’s Day and A Current Affair back in 2010, Monahan admitted that she had been sexually assaulted by a man who worked with her on the show in the time between 1987 and 1994 – but at the time she was unable to say who that man was for legal reasons.

It was her interview that propelled more women to come forward with distressingly similar stories, contacting A Current Affair and police and ultimately sparking the investigation that led to Hughes convictions.

Speaking to Tracy Grimshaw on tonight’s A Current Affair, Monahan said that she was thrilled when Hughes was found guilty.

This from The Daily Telegraph:

“It wasn’t about me. He did some awful, terrible things to them. I feel like I got away lightly.”

Monahan was just six when she joined the cast for the 1987 Channel Seven sitcom, and 10 when she claims she was first flashed by the man who played her TV father, Martin Kelly.

As Sydney’s Downing Centre Court heard, he would go on to inappropriately grope and expose himself to the vulnerable young actor during production breaks on the top-rating TV show.

While she left the show harbouring the darkest of secrets in 1993, Hughes continued to play it large as the leading man until further “concerns” were finally raised with the show’s producers and Seven management.

Tonight’s Channel Nine exclusive report on A Current Affair will highlight a ‘coverup culture’ that apparently existed on the set of the TV show – but that also exists more widely with almost all cases of abuse.

“I think that is one of the most shocking things of what Hughes has done. It’s this culture of ‘shut up’; this cover up which is indirectly enabling him,” Grimshaw told Lisa Wilkinson on Today, adding that cast members like Simone Buchanan and Ben Oxenbould have lost work for speaking out about what happened.

When asked about whether other stars knew about the abuse that was taking place on the set of Hey Dad! Grimshaw said that some people knew more than others.

“Ben and Simone definitely knew, Julie knew a bit, Chris knew a little bit,” Grimshaw said.

“This culture of cover up, it exists even now. People are afraid to speak even now. There are victims who are afraid to talk. We know that he did things to other people – and they just haven’t wanted to talk. They haven’t wanted to acknowledge it. They’ve been trying to move on from it. Lots of people knew more than they will admit to.”

Ultimately though, Grimshaw said that she hopes the interview will give other victims of abuse the confidence to speak out.

“It’s very difficult to get this sort of result that we have seen in this case – in any sexual abuse case,” she said.

“To be able to bring justice to this matter is quite a phenomenal result.”

“The greater good, we hope, is that it will empower other victims. It will empower other women who were abused as children,” she said.

Robert Hughes will be sentenced in May. Nothing can take away the pain and suffering he has caused his victims, but here’s hoping the sentence he receives gives them some kind of peace.

The episode of A Current Affair airs at 7pm tonight on Channel Nine.