Convicted paedophile and Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes set to apply for an appeal in the High Court to challenge his six year prison sentence.
The 67-year-old was jailed in 2014 after a jury found him guilty of ten charges of molesting four girls during the height of his fame in the 80s and 90s – his youngest victim was six or seven while another was a fellow cast mate on sitcom, Hey Dad!
Hughes’ lawyer Greg Walsh confirmed to AAP on Monday that he had lodged paperwork in the High Court in a bid to garner his client special leave to appeal against his convictions and jail term.
Hughes’ defence team launched an appeal to the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal in December last year where the court heard evidence he had been treated harshly by other inmates at the Goulburn Supermax facility where he was being held.
“(He would) regularly have boiling water thrown over him by inmates; have faeces thrown over him regularly and also urine,” Mr Walsh said.
While Mr Walsh claimed the Department of Corrective Services had not contested any of the affidavits submitted by the defence in the CCA proceedings the appeal was knocked back.
The CCA judges said it was clear that Judge Peter Zhara had accounted for the likelihood that Hughes would face hardship in prison in his original sentencing of him in 2014.
“We consider it plain that the sentencing judge was well aware of the potential for the applicant to be the subject of serious verbal and physical abuse in custody,” Chief Justice Tom Bathurst and Justices Margaret Beazley and Paul Hidden wrote in their December judgment.
Hughes has since been moved to Sydney’s Long Bay Correctional Complex.
The grounds for the latest appeal are reportedly focused on claims the Crown had illegitimately relied on allegations about Hughes sleeping naked in his change room or exposed himself inappropriately, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Mr Walsh also called the crown prosecutor’s address at trial and media reports about the case “inflammatory”.
According to APP the application for special leave is likely to be heard in April.
Under his original sentence Hughes is eligible for release in 2020.
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