Scott was a popular teacher at Cromer High School in the 1980s. Scott was using his position to groom, drug and then sexually abuse teenage boys from the school, molesting and assaulting them in classrooms and storerooms during school hours or after school in his blue panel van. After the lifting of court suppression orders on Friday, it can now be revealed that over the past month Scott has been convicted of 13 child sex offences committed between 1984 and 1986, following three separate trials and is facing years in jail. This includes multiple convictions for homosexual sex with a minor, indecent assault and providing a stupefying drug for the purpose of having homosexual sex with a minor. The convictions, the last of which were delivered on Friday, provide a degree of solace for the five survivors of the abuse, several of whom went into downward spirals of addiction from which at least one is still recovering.

Making videos: Scott directed and produced music videos for The Divinyls, along with other popular bands. Credit:YouTube "We've all lived with this for a very long time," one of the men, now in his 40s, said. "It's a fantastic result but with a guy who's had 40 years in teaching, you have to wonder if other people he abused are still out there." Over the course of three trials in the Downing Centre District Court, Scott's method of ingratiating himself into the teenager's circle, selecting the more vulnerable child and then abusing him began to emerge. One survivor described how the teacher began socialising with him and his friends in 1984 or 1985 in his first few years at Cromer High, opening up the school's music room after hours and on the weekend so they could have jam sessions.

Scott would often share a joint with the boys during these activities, thereby making them more vulnerable to his abuse. The survivor recalled how, in the summer of 1984 when he was 14 years old, Scott took him into the school cleaner's room above the gymnasium and shared a joint with him. With the teenager stunned by the effects of the drug, Scott then pulled his pants down and performed oral sex on him as the youngster sat, frozen with shock. "It was happening two or three times a week but because I couldn't narrow down the dates for a lot of the incidents they couldn't lay extra charges," the survivor told The Sun-Herald after the final trial concluded. "He said 'if anyone finds out I'm going to turn it all around and tell them you did it and they're going to believe me because I'm the teacher'. "You just sat there going, 'what's going on?' You couldn't tell your mates because most of them thought he was cool and because you didn't talk to your mates about that stuff."

Much of Scott's abusing was carried out this way, the court heard, in small rooms on the school grounds away from prying eyes and with the assistance of cannabis and other drugs, including cocaine. Another of Scott's grooming strategies was to take the boys to the beach to go surfing and, occasionally, to make surfing videos. They would travel in a blue Toyota van with the name of his production video company, B-Sharp, emblazoned on the side, and would often be given joints to smoke on the way or when they got there. One survivor recalled how Scott invited him and his mates back to his house at Bilgola on one such occasion so they could have a shower. The teacher told him to use a shower upstairs while his mates remained downstairs. While he was showering, Scott, got into the shower with him and indecently assaulted him.

The Crown Prosecutor in the case, Nanette Williams, told the court that Scott's grooming extended beyond befriending the boys themselves. "The accused, you might think, not only groomed [the boys] but he groomed the school community," Ms Williams said. "He groomed the family of [one boy]. Strong evidence came from his mother that she thought he was a good guy. He was somebody she welcomed into her house, she trusted him with her son. She trusted the accused with her son." Scott flatly denied all of the allegations against him, describing one of his victims as "a nightmare", "a thief" and "an aggressive stalker". He denied even knowing three of his other victims, declaring: "I don't remember those students, I don't know them, I have no recall of them".

He shook his head in denial as the final four guilty verdicts were handed down on Friday. By the time Scott was arrested in January 2012, he had spent just over 40 years in the teaching profession, teaching at Mullumbimby High for eight years in the 1990s, at Kingscliffe TAFE and then Byron High, where he spent the his last few years in administrative duties after the first abuse complaints from the former Cromer students were made. He also continued to make music videos and documentaries, several of which received awards and widespread recognition. Meanwhile, the survivors of his abuse struggled with the impact of what had been done to them, battling drug addiction, confusion about their sexuality and an inability to be intimate with their partners or affectionate towards their children. "I couldn't say for certain that there was a direct correlation between those incidents and my drinking or my drug use, but I don't think it's a coincidence that many of us have had those issues," one survivor said.

"For a lot of us, he [Scott] was the one who introduced us to drugs, and after that I think there's a degree to which I was self-medicating." All wrestled with what happened to them for many years but eventually found the courage to come forward and report what had happened to them. They are hopeful that if others have suffered abuse at Scott's hands, they will now also go to police. "I think it's the first guys who had the courage to come forward who should be thanked," one survivor who came forward following an earlier Fairfax Media report said. Scott will return to court for sentencing on May 2.