PEOPLE who sat through the Royal Court case in which former judo instructor Eugene Hughes admitted a series of indecent assaults on young girls were shocked by the level of abuse he had subjected them to.

The interference he inflicted was physical and mental and too awful to be described in print.

The mercy is that a man, by any definition a pervert, is now behind bars and even when released will be subject to conditions that, if breached, will see him return to jail.

Yet while he is prevented from offending again, his victims have to cope with shattered childhood memories and – as quotes from them released by Guernsey Police indicate – damaged adult lives.

How many young people Hughes has harmed in this way will never be known but the publicity given to the case by this newspaper led to a number of calls to police from potential victims and these will now be followed up.

As has been demonstrated in past cases, such prosecutions can trigger a sense of relief among those damaged and give others confidence also to come forward. Without care and positive outcomes, abuse investigations can actually prevent people from raising their concerns and police and the court are to be commended on what was clearly a successful inquiry and a robust sentence.

There were fears in some quarters that Hughes’s age would result in no time in jail – a slap on the wrist – but the judge made clear that such behaviour would not be tolerated and that being 80 was no reason for leniency. It was a clear signal and islanders will take comfort from it.

Where the process was less satisfactory, however, was over yet another gagging order being imposed – in our view without cause – which initially stopped the media from identifying Hughes.

Yet as was demonstrated yesterday and in other cases of abuse, publicity is one of the biggest factors that encourages victims to throw off years of silence and seek help.

Police, rightly, do not wish to imply that the five children involved in Monday’s case were the tip of the iceberg.

Unfortunately, by limiting reporting, the court’s gag did nothing to help discover the full extent of Hughes’s crimes.