FORMER prominent Hunter Surf Life Saving member Robert John Beavis will spend up to four more years in prison over historical sex offences on two more girls then aged as young as 8.
He will not be eligible for release on parole until June 6, 2024, putting him away for a minimum two more years.
Beavis pleaded guilty in Newcastle District court on Tuesday to two counts of aggravated indecent assault, and two counts of sexual intercourse with a child under ten.
Other offences taken into account on sentence by Justice Roy Ellis related to an ongoing course of conduct involving further acts of sexual intercourse on a child under ten.
One of the two victims, who cannot be named, sat in court with her partner as Beavis, appeared from Hunter Correctional Centre via audio visual link.
He was arrested and charged on January 15, 2020, while already behind bars after being found guilty by trial of sex offences on a third victim.
At the end of that trial he was jailed for eight years, with a non-parole period of four years and ten months. He appealed the severity of that sentence but the appeals court made no change to the bottom line, meaning he remained ineligible for parole until February 2022.
The court heard today that the new charges, against two more victims, occurred between 2003 and 2006 and involved girls who visited his family home in Belmont for sleep overs and who went to the beach with him.
His offences include indecently assaulting each of the girls in a swimming pool, and also at the beach. On one occasion he was holding one of the girls up in surf that she could not manage independently, putting his finger inside her in circumstances she could not escape.
Beavis is a former Surf Life Saving movement official who represented the Hunter at local, regional, state and national events.
