Court hears of Hey Dad! star's 'games'

"I don't like the games Robert plays with me."

This was how a seven-year-old girl told her parents of her alleged sexual abuse at the hands of Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes in the mid-1980s, a Sydney court has heard.

The parents of the alleged victim, who is now 35, gave evidence on Wednesday that they were so alarmed by what their daughter said Hughes had done that they sought help from a child psychologist, contacted police, and eventually moved house to get away from him.

Hughes, 65, has pleaded not guilty to 11 sexual and indecent assault charges stemming from allegations he abused five girls in the 1980s and '90s.

The alleged victim testified that until the age of about seven, she would regularly stay over at Hughes' home on Sydney's north shore, which was not far from her own home.

She told the Downing Centre District Court Hughes would go to her as she slept and use her hand to masturbate him.

"He was like, come on, roll over, and obviously I didn't fight him because I was only little, and he rolled me over and started making me masturbate him," the witness told the Downing Centre District Court via video link.

"(Then) he gave me my teddy back and told me to go back to sleep."

She said she began making excuses not to stay over before telling her parents about the alleged late-night visits.

"(She) was seven years old. She came and said words to the effect of 'I don't like the games Robert plays with me'," her father said on Wednesday about their conversation in early 1986.

"Afterwards we had some discussion, and (she) said, 'Robert put white sticky stuff on my arm' ... She appeared to be seeking some reassurance, some answer."

The family took their story to police, he said, but decided not to pursue charges because they didn't want to put their child through a trial.

The woman went to police again in 2010 after seeing media reports involving other alleged victims of Hughes, the court heard.

The alleged victim's mother said she ran into Hughes' wife, Robyn Gardiner, after hearing the allegations.

"She asked me why (my daughter) wasn't allowed to go to their house any more, and I said words to the effect of, 'Ask your husband'," the mother said.

"She said, 'Oh, we'll have to get him help'. I just told her to get away from me."

Defence barrister Greg Walsh said Ms Gardiner never spoke of seeking help for Hughes.

Within months, the family had moved to a different part of Sydney, the mother said.

She told how another mother later called her with claims her own child had been abused, and how she told her that if she renewed the charges, their children's case would be stronger.

"I told that mother we'd made our decision. We'd moved. We'd got away from him," she said.

The trial continues.