MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Veteran actress Maggie Kirkpatrick, who played a violent and corrupt warden nicknamed “The Freak” in a cult Australian soap opera set in a women’s prison, appeared in court Wednesday charged with molesting a 13-year-old psychiatric hospital patient in her home more than 30 years ago.
The series was known as “Prisoner” in Australia, and “Prisoner: Cell Block H” or “Caged Women” overseas. It ran from 1979 to 1986.
Kirkpatrick, 74, whose character Joan “The Freak” Ferguson would molest inmates with the excuse of conducting body searches, was charged in Melbourne Magistrates Court with two counts of indecently assaulting the young “Prisoner” fan in the 1984 and one count of gross indecency with a person under 16.
Kirkpatrick told police in a recorded interview played to the court on Wednesday that she was astonished by the allegations that she described as malicious and untrue.
Kirkpatrick gasped and put her head in her hand as police read details of the allegations.