BRAVERY comes in many forms and today we see an example of a very personal kind of courage on our centre pages.

From the outside, Zibby Yates looks like a happy, beautiful young woman. But inside, as our feature reveals, her life was changed forever when she became the victim of a paedophile at the age of eight.

Unknown to her loving, supportive and happy family, she was sexually abused for years by her then judo instructor Eugene Hughes.

Decades later, after she and other victims came forward to tell their stories, he was jailed for six-and-a-half-years.

Recently the ordeal looked set to come back to haunt her when he applied and failed to obtain early release. Yet an appeal can be lodged again and, either way, he will be out of prison after serving only two-thirds of his sentence.

While for most people the trauma of privately recounting such devastating memories to professional counsellors ahead of the trial would have been enough, today Zibby’s bravery continues.

For the first time she is revealing her identity, no small thing in such a close-knit community as Guernsey, in a bid to help support and raise local awareness of the suffering endured by victims of paedophiles.

Her ultimate aim is to help warn others of the risks to their children and to ensure the treatment offenders receive is sufficient, so that hopefully no other child has their innocence stolen and life changed forever.

In the first of a series this week, she is urging others affected in this way to contact her in confidence to help build a picture of the true situation that exists in Guernsey and how support could be improved.

And to back Zibby’s courageous stance, her parents have also agreed to tell their story in a three-page special report tomorrow.

They reveal their devastation, guilt and pain on hearing of their daughter’s abuse, something Zibby could not bring herself to speak of until more than 20 years later.

Readers have sometimes questioned our reporting of paedophile offences and convictions in the island. For some it is often uncomfortable to read about, understand or even accept that such terrible things really do go on in our community.

But far more have welcomed the coverage, believing it is only through addressing and challenging such social taboos that our children will become safer from predators.

So while Zibby’s story may be a difficult one to hear, it is vital that it is told.