“I wanted to stop him,” she said.

“As a child I felt like no-one but my family believed me. When the jury said guilty to each of the charges it was quite overwhelming. Those 12 people in the jury said they believed me. They heard all the evidence and said I was the one telling the truth.

“There was a real sense of justice.”

Beavis, 52, was jailed for eight years in December, with a minimum sentence of four years and 10 months, after he was found guilty of three counts of aggravated sexual assault and two of aggravated indecent assault against Ms Long when she was 10.

His trial included evidence from a second young woman whose family made an allegation about Beavis to police in a statement on her behalf in 1998. The family did not pursue criminal proceedings at the time because the child was eight.   

Ms Long chose to be identified to encourage other child sexual abuse victims to speak to someone trusted about it, and report allegations to police.

She also wants to send a strong message to adults about protecting children.

“I told people what he did but I was told I was wrong. My family believed me, but others didn’t,” Ms Long said.

The Beavis case raises questions about the Surf Life Saving movement’s child protection policies and procedures after Beavis remained an official at local, regional, state and national events, despite the two reports to police in 1998 and 2005.

The case also raises questions about Department of Education knowledge of allegations against Beavis, after Ms Long’s mother made a statement to police about her daughter’s disclosure to a department employee in 2005.

Ms Long alleged she told the employee details about the abuse after speaking about it with other children, but was told she “shouldn’t be saying stuff like that”.

“I got a big lecture because I had spoken to other children about what happened to me, but there was no response at all to the fact I was actually disclosing I had been sexually abused,” Ms Long said.

“I was quite upset. I thought I’d done the right thing. The person was angry with me. It had an impact on me.”

A Department of Education spokesperson said legislation meant it was unable to comment about whether a mandatory report about Beavis was made to the Department of Family and Community Services in 2005, but staff had an obligation to act where they believed a child was at risk.

“The well-being and welfare of all public school students are the highest priorities for the NSW Department of Education,” the spokesperson said.

In her statement Ms Long’s mother, Nicole, alleged she was extremely angry with the department employee and yelled that Beavis was a “paedophile”.

Ms Long said it took her 12 years to pursue criminal proceedings against Beavis after a decision was made not to pursue criminal proceedings in 2005 because of her age.

“I was a child. I watched Disney movies. I knew nothing about sex and then this happened to me,” she said.

Mrs Long wept as she described the shock and horror of discovering her daughter had been sexually abused by a man who was known to the family, and who continued to hold positions at a Hunter surf club.

“As a parent it’s your responsibility to protect your children. We trusted someone who represented himself as a pillar of society. We thought our child was safe and she wasn’t. The trauma that child sexual abuse inflicts on children, that they carry into adulthood, you can’t begin to even acknowledge,” she said.

“We sold up everything. We left the area. We went to a new place to live so that our daughter didn’t have to face him.”

Kassandra Long questioned the Surf Life Saving movement’s child protection processes after he remained prominent in the organisation, despite the police taking out an apprehended violence order against Beavis on her behalf in 2005 because of their concerns for her safety.

“Authority figures should be protecting kids. I was 10 and there was an AVO out against him, yet he was still allowed to be with kids. I don’t understand why he was allowed to still take part in Surf Life Saving events after my complaint to police in 2005, and why he wasn’t under some kind of restrictions in terms of being trusted with children,” Ms Long said.

Surf Life Saving Australia, NSW and at the local level did not respond to questions about whether Beavis disclosed the police reports against him to the organisation.

An Australian Childhood Foundation audit of the Surf Life Saving movement in February, 2016, completed as part of SLS’s response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, found the national body had “no centralised, regular or systematic overview of child protection-related incidents or allegations occurring across the SLS movement”, despite the “high risk” posed by its operational environment.

Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive Steven Pearce said the organisation was “extremely disappointed that one of our members has been convicted of such a serious offence” because the betrayal of trust “goes against all of our values”.

“I would ask, and encourage, any member that has concerns related to child protection within Surf Life Saving, to immediately notify both the NSW Police and Surf Life Saving NSW, so that it can be investigated immediately,” Mr Pearce said.

Ms Long had completed nursing training in 2016 when she made the decision to pursue criminal proceedings against Beavis.

“I felt like it was my responsibility to do something. I felt like I was expected to be strong because others hadn’t acted to stop him,” she said.

“It wasn’t a difficult decision in the end. It was something I’ve wanted to do all along. I wanted someone that wasn’t my family to believe in me. I wanted to stop him. I couldn’t allow him to do to anyone else what he’d done to me.”

Her mother was in court when the guilty verdicts were read out.

“It was very nerve-wracking right up until the very last guilty finding but it was an overwhelming feeling to know that I’d been believed. Mum was quite emotional.”

A minimum four years and 10 months jail sentence was a letdown but “I’m glad he was found guilty. He committed crimes against a child and now people know.”