Prisoner: Cell Block H star avoids jail for child sexual assault

A veteran Australian actress convicted of sexually assaulting a young girl has avoided a jail sentence.

Maggie Kirkpatrick, 74, who played corrupt warden Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson in Prisoner: Cell Block H was convicted earlier at Melbourne Magistrates' Court on two counts of indecently assaulting the troubled girl in Kirkpatrick's Melbourne home in 1984 and one count of gross indecency.

Sentencing, Magistrate Peter Maly told her that she would have been sentenced to jail if not for the fact that there had been no more offences since that single night in 1984.

Mr Mealy ordered her to perform 100 hours of community service and to undergo treatment programs designed for sex offenders.

She will remain on a sex offender register for eight years, during which she is banned from working with children and must keep police informed of her whereabouts.

He said Kirkpatrick had chosen a vulnerable victim and had shown no remorse.