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| Maggie Kirkpatrick: Australian actress found guilty of child abuse | |
| (about 21 hours later) | |
| Australian actress Maggie Kirkpatrick has been found guilty by a court in Melbourne of sexually abusing a girl under 14 in 1984. | |
| Kirkpatrick, aged 74 and one of the stars of 1980s Australian TV drama Prisoner Cell Block H, had denied charges of gross indecency. | Kirkpatrick, aged 74 and one of the stars of 1980s Australian TV drama Prisoner Cell Block H, had denied charges of gross indecency. |
| But the court ruled she had abused the girl at her home in Prahan, Victoria. | But the court ruled she had abused the girl at her home in Prahan, Victoria. |
| Kirkpatrick was ordered to return to court on Friday, when she will be sentenced to community service. | Kirkpatrick was ordered to return to court on Friday, when she will be sentenced to community service. |
| In a statement read to the court, the unnamed victim said she had organised a meeting with Kirkpatrick through a TV producer while she was a patient in a psychiatric hospital. | In a statement read to the court, the unnamed victim said she had organised a meeting with Kirkpatrick through a TV producer while she was a patient in a psychiatric hospital. |
| She said said she had not reported the abuse until recently because she feared people would call her "crazy". | She said said she had not reported the abuse until recently because she feared people would call her "crazy". |
| Kirkpatrick played a warden called Joan, nicknamed the Freak, in Prisoner, a popular series set in a women's prison. | |
| She later appeared in a host of other Australian TV shows and in 1991 played Marilyn's aunt Jean Chambers in Home and Away. Her most recent role was in a stage production of the musical Wicked. | She later appeared in a host of other Australian TV shows and in 1991 played Marilyn's aunt Jean Chambers in Home and Away. Her most recent role was in a stage production of the musical Wicked. |