Four women have made allegations of sexual misconduct against the CEO of Victoria's Aboriginal Legal Service, Wayne Muir.

Key points: Katrina Beer claims Wayne Muir sexually harassed her

Katrina Beer claims Wayne Muir sexually harassed her Leanne Muir claims Mr Muir raped her

Leanne Muir claims Mr Muir raped her Luana Morgan and Vicky Peart claim Mr Muir indecently assaulted them

Luana Morgan and Vicky Peart claim Mr Muir indecently assaulted them Mr Muir denies the allegations of rape and indecent assault, rejecting them as false and defamatory. He says he has apologised to Ms Beer

The accusations of rape, indecent assault and sexual harassment are alleged to have taken place between 1987 and 2003.

Two of the alleged victims were children when the alleged incidents occurred.

Through his lawyer, Mr Muir strenuously denied the allegations of rape and indecent assault, rejecting them as false and defamatory.

'He was somebody I looked up to'

It was in April 2003 that Katrina Beer got the call she had been hoping for. A call that could help to realise her dream job of becoming an Aboriginal liaison officer at Ballarat University.

On the line was Mr Muir.

"I was like, yes, this is my opportunity," she said.

"I really wanted to make a difference within the community."

Ms Beer had known Mr Muir since she was 16, when she first worked for him at Ballarat University's Aboriginal Education Centre.

At 21, Ms Beer was again working with Mr Muir at the university, but they were based on different campuses.

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Katrina Beer recorded Wayne Muir apologising for asking her to perform an oral sex act in his office. ( ABC News: Callum Denness )

"He was somebody that I actually looked up to and envied and idolised," she told 7.30.

"[He] played a significant role within the community around rights for Aboriginal people, so that's something that inspired me, I guess."

Mr Muir asked Ms Beer to come and see him at his office at the university's Mount Helen campus, south of Ballarat. She hoped it would be a discussion which would help progress her career.

"As soon as I walked through the door, he asked me, did I come out to do him a favour," she said.

"I said, 'It depends on what it is'. Because that was my feeling, like something's not right here.

"He said, 'Would you give me a head job?'"

Ms Beer thought Mr Muir was joking. He was not.

"I said 'no', and the room was starting to spin for me. I felt really intimidated."

Ms Beer tried to leave Mr Muir's office.

"He stopped the door from opening before I could get out, and he warned me, he said not to tell anyone, this conversation didn't happen."

'I found out I wasn't the only one'

Wayne Muir in 2015. ( ABC News: Felicity Ogilvy )

Afterwards Ms Beer spoke to a counsellor and a colleague at work.

"[My colleague] just didn't believe me that it happened the way that I said that it happened," she said.

"That's because of the position that Wayne held, not just within the university, but his reputation within the community."

Determined to be believed, Ms Beer rang Mr Muir and recorded the conversation.

Mr Muir can be heard saying, "Look, honestly Katrina, I have done some soul-searching over the last day and a bit myself, and thought why did you say such a stupid thing? I honestly don't know what came over me. And all I can do is really, just truly apologise".

Ms Beer asked Mr Muir to repeat what he said to her in his office.

"I will never, ever ask you to give me a head job ever, ever again. Ever," he said.

Katrina Beer says the incident had a "huge impact" on her psychologically. ( ABC News: Callum Denness )

Ms Beer filed an official sexual harassment complaint and received a written apology from him.

But that was not the end of the matter for Ms Beer.

"It had a big impact on my partner and I at the time. It had a huge impact on me psychologically," she said.

"I thought that everyone was going to hate me within the community, but I just needed at least one person to say to me that it's OK.

"And that's when I found out that I wasn't the only one.

"When this all happened for me, people started coming to me and saying, 'me too'."

7.30 interviewed three other women who claim to have been victims of Mr Muir's misconduct.

Warning: This article contains images of deceased Indigenous Australians

Who is Wayne Muir?

Former Victorian police commissioner Ken Lay, pictured left, at an event with Wayne Muir.

Mr Muir is currently the CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, a position he has held since 2011. He is also CEO of Tasmania's Aboriginal Legal Service.

He has been chair or a member of many boards and committees concerned with Aboriginal justice, education and health, including the Victorian Indigenous Family Violence Forum.

Mr Muir often speaks out publicly about Aboriginal justice issues and is a powerful and influential member of the Indigenous community.

Myrtle Muir on the cover of Victoria Police magazine, Police Life, in 1996.

He grew up in Ballarat and was the youngest of nine children to Myrtle Muir, who was a prominent, influential and much-honoured identity within Ballarat's Aboriginal community.

Myrtle Muir won numerous awards for her contribution to Aboriginal housing and justice issues, and was commended for improving Aboriginal relations with the police.

Peter Ure, a now-retired detective who worked in Ballarat in the 1980s, said Myrtle Muir was well-regarded by the police.

"She had a rapport with the police. I'd known Myrtle for a good number of years and I always got on well with her," Mr Ure said.

"Myrtle Muir was more the matriarch of the family and of the Aboriginal community at that time, and everybody just knew that because of her public appearances."

Myrtle Muir also fostered 48 Aboriginal children throughout her life.

But not everyone remembers her fondly, including members of her own family.

"She got all these accolades, but what for? She was the most nastiest, vindictive person I've ever come across," Jenny Muir, Mr Muir's older sister, told 7.30.

"People are very fooled, fooled very easily. She pulled the wool over their eyes, I tell you. They didn't live with her."

Myrtle Muir died in 2009.

'I looked up to him as a big brother'

Leanne Muir claims she was raped by her uncle Wayne Muir when she was 14. Mr Muir strongly denies the allegations. ( ABC News: Lucas Hill )

When she was a toddler, Leanne Muir went to live with Myrtle Muir, her grandmother.

"I was two years old when I was taken from my Mum and went to live with my Nan Myrtle," Leanne Muir said.

Leanne Muir's uncle Wayne Muir also lived in the house.

Leanne Muir's father was another of Myrtle Muir's sons.

"Everyone would go there: aunties, uncles, cousins. Yeah, big close-knit family. I thought we were a big close-knit family," she said.

"I guess I looked up to him as a big brother."

When she was 14, Leanne Muir went along for a big night out with Mr Muir, who was then 22, and her aunt Barbara Muir, another of Mr Muir's sisters.

It was a cabaret night marking the middle of a sports carnival weekend hosted by Ballarat's Aboriginal community. Next to the hall where the cabaret was held is a pub called the Blue Bell.

"They were buying me alcohol at the Blue Bell. That's when I got very intoxicated, so Barb took me back to her place and left me there," Leanne Muir said.

Kathy Smith, Mr Muir's partner at the time, was also at the cabaret that night.

"Wayne disappeared for an hour and a half. [I] didn't know where he was, didn't know what's going on. Till the next morning, I didn't know," Ms Smith said.

Leanne Muir said she knew where Mr Muir was.

"Wayne had broken in and raped me," Leanne Muir told 7.30.

"They took me to the hospital to have a test done and I spoke to a counsellor. It was horrible, it was a horrible experience."

Ballarat Hospital records show Leanne Muir went to hospital after the alleged assault.

Ms Smith said she witnessed Myrtle Muir's reaction to Leanne Muir's allegation.

"She hit her in the face. 'My son goes to jail and your life won't be worth living'. Just belted her and that happened a lot after that, you know," Ms Smith said.

"She was like a scared little rabbit."

Day in court

A young Wayne Muir.

Former Ballarat police detective, Peter Ure, began an investigation.

Mr Muir was later arrested and charged with rape.

"The evidence at the time indicated that that offence had occurred and there was sufficient evidence to say that he was the instigator of the matter, so he was charged with it," Mr Ure said.

Mr Muir was also charged with carnal knowledge of a minor aged between 10 and 16, and aggravated burglary.

Mr Muir fronted court for a committal hearing on May 1, 1987. Leanne Muir appeared in court too.

"Myrtle told me not to say anything and, in the end, it got thrown out of court," Leanne Muir said.

Kathy Smith remembers that day in court.

"Leanne got up and she just could not speak," Ms Smith said.

"She'd just look straight down at the ground, just too scared to speak."

Mr Ure was disappointed and believes pressure from Myrtle Muir was to blame for the case collapsing.

"I'd say family pressure, whether perceived or real, but family pressure," he said.

"You wouldn't lay charges unless you were satisfied there was sufficient evidence to put him in that circumstance."

'I've been to hell and back'

Leanne Muir in her Brisbane home. ( ABC News: Lucas Hill )

When Leanne Muir was 16, she said her uncle Wayne Muir was abusing her again.

"One night he did come in my room and I had a little dog in bed, and the dog started barking," Leanne Muir said.

"Wayne's half naked, almost in bed with me, and Myrtle walks in the room, flicks the light on and sees him in there and just looks, flicks the light off and just walks out and walks away.

"So it hurts me the most that she knew and did nothing about it."

Mr Muir's sister, Jenny Muir, remembers Leanne Muir before the alleged abuse began.

"She was just beautiful. She was a happy-go-lucky, bubbly little girl that craved for attention that she never, ever got," Jenny Muir said.

"But that's just the make-up of the grandmother. She never, ever cared for Leanne. She had a very bad childhood growing up."

Myrtle Muir was a prominent and influential identity in Ballarat.

Leanne Muir now lives in Brisbane. She struggles with depression and substance abuse and has spent time in jail for assaulting police while intoxicated.

She has been unable to care for her own children.

"I got married and had children but I was taught to love in the wrong way, so I never knew how to properly love and care," Leanne Muir said.

"It's taken me many, many years to come to terms with being abused, the trauma of it. I guess I didn't understand back then, it really screwed me up.

"I want my story to be told, what I've survived, what I've been through. I've been to hell and back because of that putrid person."

'I didn't say anything'

Luana Morgan got along well with Wayne Muir's children and sometimes stayed at his house. ( ABC News )

Luana Morgan was not directly related to Wayne Muir, but also grew up calling him uncle.

Mr Muir's sister Barbara Muir fostered Ms Morgan into the Muir clan when she was two years old. Ms Morgan is almost 32 now and still lives in Ballarat.

"I used to stay at my uncle's house. He had sons so we were all pretty close and the same age. We got along really well so we stayed there," Ms Morgan said.

It was about 2001 when Ms Morgan was 14 or 15 years old, and Mr Muir was in his late 30s, that Ms Morgan alleges an incident occurred.

Luana Morgan as a child.

"I stayed there one night," she told 7.30.

"I felt someone touch my hand and put it onto a penis and then I was like, I was in shock. I was scared, thinking, oh, what's going on.

"Then I felt him rub my chest and I'm like, hang on, this isn't right. And then his hand went down towards my pelvis area and I just jumped up in a shock of thinking, oh my God.

"I even think I tried to run out of the room with no shoes on to just escape and run out the front door."

Ms Morgan said Mr Muir blocked her escape from the house.

"I was crying, I was emotional, I was a wreck. I went into the little room and he said to me, 'You can't tell anyone, I will lose everyone'. So I didn't say anything, because I was scared."

Years later, in 2009, Ms Morgan attended counselling at Ballarat's Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA).

CASA records confirm she went there three times "in relation to the impact of alleged childhood sexual assault and subsequent trauma".

"I did that and then just ever since I just pushed it away, because ultimately this is the only family I know. I don't have any other family," Ms Morgan said.

"I'm so scared of being abandoned. Yeah, it's just scary."

Ms Morgan said the alleged abuse changed the way she saw the world.

"It took away my trust in people and took away my love. I couldn't love anyone until I had [my] girls."

'I had a lot of respect for Wayne'

Vicky Peart sometimes crossed paths with Wayne Muir at work. ( ABC News )

Vicky Peart works at Ballarat's Aboriginal Co-op. Over the years, this has meant working with Wayne Muir and visiting offices he had at Ballarat University.

She alleges an incident took place some time between 1998 and 2000.

"Another co-worker and myself went out there, we went to the Koori unit," Ms Peart said.

She was not prepared for what Mr Muir did next.

"As I was walking through to the kitchen area he'd come up behind me and pinned my arms and grabbed hold of my breasts," she said.

"I said, 'Just get out!'

"I was shocked. I had a lot of respect for Wayne. Since then I've got no respect for him at all.

"He didn't say anything. That was the thing. He did not say anything. No apology, no nothing, and then he just let go as if nothing had happened."

Ms Peart says she reported the incident to work colleagues.

'False, baseless and gravely defamatory'

In answer to detailed questions 7.30 put to Wayne Muir through his lawyer, Mr Muir rejected the key allegations by Leanne Muir, Luana Morgan and Vicky Peart as false, baseless and defamatory.

His lawyer, in response to questions about Katrina Beer, described the incident as "a workplace complaint" for which Mr Muir subsequently apologised.

Mr Muir declined 7.30's request for an on-camera interview.