He took on left-wing students in aggressive battles for positions on the student council and was a spear-carrier in a push to dissolve the powerful Australian Union of Students (AUS). It was the late 1970s, and Mr Abbott and others who would later become prominent public figures were cutting their political teeth as the social tumult of the post-Vietnam era spilled onto the nation's campuses.

Political parties, and influential anti-communist groups such as the powerful National Civic Council, were active recruiters at a student level. Never before or since had university students held such political appeal - or power. It was an ugly and often violent time. The end result, for Mr Abbott and Ms Wilson, was a sensational charge of sexual assault and a date in North Sydney court. An investigation by The Sun-Herald into Mr Abbott's controversial student days reveals that he spawned many more enemies than friends during those heady days. "He was a very offensive, a particularly obnoxious sort of guy," said Barbie Schaffer, a Sydney teacher who was at Sydney University with Mr Abbott.

"He was very aggressive, particularly towards women and homosexuals". Published university reports show that after a narrow defeat in the university senate elections in 1976 - Mr Abbott's first year of an economics-law degree - he kicked in a glass panel door.

In the ensuing two years, he was repeatedly accused in the university paper of being a right-wing thug and bully who used sexist and racist tactics to intimidate his opponents. Lawyer David Patch, who is a Labor candidate in the federal seat of Wentworth, recalls an AUS conference in the mid-1970s, which had initiated a special "women's room" for females to discuss political issues. "Tony used to stand outside the women's room with his right-wing mates and loudly tell sexist and homophobic jokes," he said.

Another ex-student, Peter Murphy, who described Mr Abbott as a "warrior on the Right" believes he was the one most responsible for creating the atmosphere of terror that reigned on campus in 1977. In August 1977 students on every NSW campus were preparing to vote in a referendum on the future of the AUS. That's when Ms Wilson's and Mr Abbott's paths crossed. Both were addressing a rally of students, held in the Ku-ring-gai campus dining room.

The incident that prompted Ms Wilson's accusation occurred while she spoke. When it came to court the following January, Mr Abbott was flanked by his parents, a legal team including a QC, and seven witnesses. Advocates for Ms Wilson are to this day flabbergasted at the firepower Mr Abbott wheeled in, which left their under-represented side wilting.

The incident didn't seem to break Mr Abbott's stride, although his second tilt at election to the Student Representative Council (SRC) - which was happening at the same heady time - ended in tears. Barbara Ramjan, now a social worker, who defeated Mr Abbott for the SRC presidency that year, remembers the night of September 7, 1977 when officer elections were held.

Two letters she wrote then to Honi Soit, a student newspaper, outlined her version of the evening. One letter described how throughout the evening Mr Abbott and his mates, including a dentistry student, harassed and insulted the women standing for election. Outside the meeting, one woman "was confronted by J [the dentistry student], who decided to 'have a bit of fun' and exposed his genitalia to her as well as urinating against a tree," Ms Ramjan wrote. "He dropped his pants [perhaps for Abbott's entertainment, he seemed highly amused] and bowed in Abbott's direction, flashing his bum towards the woman," the letter said.

In letters of reply, Mr Abbott compared the accusations to Nazi propaganda and said that the "facts" presented were "bare-faced lies or gross distortions". Another letter by students Michelle Martin, Anne Woods, Garry Bennett and Ross Vines complained the meeting had been "characterised by an unending stream of sexist incidents and attacks by right-wing representatives and their cohorts" as well as a "racist attack against the newly-elected ethnic relations officer Takis Constantopedos".