IT'S been a long time coming - 45 years. That's how long it's taken three women to bring Dimitrios Patsantzopoulos, aka Jimmy Patsan, to justice.
Nina Kiriakidis was just eight years old in 1976 when "Uncle Jimmy" tore her life apart. He preyed on her during games of hide and seek in the backyard with his own daughter, pulling her aside and later saying: "If you say anything, I will call you a liar."
His sexual attacks became increasingly vicious. The abuse continued until she was 12 years old. During one assault the little girl blacked out. When she came to, he was gone.
She was too scared to say anything. Patsan was her father's best friend and co-owner of "Jimmy and Nick's Hairdressers" on Beaumont Street, Hamilton. He was also a well-known member of the local Greek church.
She did not disclose the assaults until she was 18, to a friend, then later told her husband, when she was 20, in 1994.
Naomi Gwyn was nine years old when she first encountered Patsan. Her mother was working for him as a cleaner and they had started a relationship. A few months later, while in Year 3 at Hamilton South Public School, Patsan was at their house and asked Naomi and her sister, Lauren Burrows, to sit on his lap. Lauren was just six. Their mother had left the room. He indecently assaulted them for the first time on that day.
Lauren first reported him to police in 2013, after reading an article about proposed changes to the statute of limitations on historical childhood sexual assault matters.
"You could only do it until you were 28, and I was 28," she said.
"I didn't know whether or not this law was going to go ahead but I started to think really seriously about if I am going to do this, I will have to do it now."
When she rang her local priest to tell him he said she was not the first. Nina had come to him many years before.
He implored her to go to the police, which she did. She then went through an excruciating experience. She agreed to wear a wire and meet with Patsan to try to eek out an admission from him.
"At this point I was not only wanting justice for myself," she said.
"He was just roaming the community and I thought if I don't do anything about this, I don't know whose children he has access to. If I had a six-year-old girl in front of me and I knew he was abusing her, of course I would go to the ends of the earth to protect her."
The admission was not forthcoming, though the recording became an important piece of evidence.
The legal wheels were not properly set in motion until Naomi and Nina also went to police. Naomi made her statement in 2016, Patsan was charged in 2018. There have been many court appearances, mentions, adjournments, and submissions. He was finally subject to a two-week Special Hearing, with a judge-alone.
"Of the 13 charges, he was convicted of nine offences." Naomi said.
"Given the limited evidence available in historical assault cases, that is almost unheard of.... We felt an overwhelming sense of validation and recognition."
"On my way home from Newcastle ... I could picture my nine-year-old self siting in the passenger seat with a smile on her face, proud of the fact that I gave her a voice... and it was heard. I'll never forget that feeling for as long as I live."
Patsan, 86, will be sentenced in Parramatta District Court on Monday. Judge Robert Sutherland has already indicated that he will impose a three-year term - the question is, how will that be served.
It has been "horrific", Naomi says - the amount of time it has taken, the three-year sentence it has achieved, and the cost to them as the victims - being cross-examined and called a liar after recalling the most traumatic moments in their lives. "It pales you emotionally, mentally and physically to the point of breakdown and collapse."
All three women have Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which has wreaked havoc on their lives - their relationships, their families, and their capacity to work. Was it worth it? Their answers are not straight forward.
"If I had to do it by myself, I probably wouldn't have done it," Naomi said. It's hard to explain how extreme it is."
But, she is glad that she finally "gave herself a voice". "It allowed me to walk away feeling that what I experienced is now being recognised, and that's overwhelming in itself."
