Yahoo Lifestyle Maggie Kirkpatrick: 'I knew I was innocent!'
Maggie Kirkpatrick. Photo: Frances Andrijich.
At first Maggie Kirkpatrick didn't even hear the words that finally freed her from two years of shock, shame and torment.
As a judge upheld the veteran actress’ appeal against her conviction for sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl more than 30 years ago, family and friends sighed with relief that the long ordeal was finally over.
‘I just couldn’t take it in, I was overwhelmed,’ Maggie reveals in an exclusive interview with New Idea, who became a household name playing Joan ‘The Freak’ Ferguson in Prisoner.
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‘It’s been a nightmare, like living in a Hitchcock movie... This terrible cloud was always hanging over me. I knew I was innocent... Now it’s over, I just feel the most incredible elation and, most of all, relief.’
Last week in Melbourne, judge Geoffrey Chettle cleared her of two counts of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency, saying that she should never have been convicted in the first place.
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‘In some ways, one of my biggest regrets is saying “yes” to that role on Prisoner all those years ago, because some people think that’s who I am, The Freak, and that’s not me at all.
‘Now this nightmare is over, the thing I’m most looking forward to is an uninterrupted night’s sleep... and enjoying time with friends again.’
To read more of this story, check out New Idea magazine, on sale now.
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