By October 1992, it had been eight years since Graeme Hobbs led 12-year-old Adam Kneale down a football club corridor and raped him for the first time.
It was eight years since the boy thought to himself the money he got from the greasy-haired, "fat" heavy smoker was worth it, because what happened wouldn't affect him when he got older.
But it was only months since he'd last seen his longtime abuser when, at the age of 20, Mr Kneale looked down at his newborn daughter and knew he had to go to police.
"I could not be the protector of my daughter if I had not done something about this," he told the Supreme Court of Victoria.
"Something in my mind had broken."
Mr Kneale was the victim of a years-long campaign of sexual abuse at the hands of Hobbs, who trained under-19s at Footscray Football Club and was a prolific volunteer fundraiser for the club.
Addressing a civil jury trial on Wednesday, Mr Kneale said he was first introduced to Hobbs at the age of 11 or 12 through a schoolmate, who suggested the man was a source of "easy money".
What followed was a pattern of abuse Hobbs subjected Mr Kneale to until he was in Year 11.
Mr Kneale would meet Hobbs at the top of a stairwell at the Bulldogs' home ground at the start of games and Hobbs would hand over cash and direct him to come back after halftime.
Then, Hobbs would take the boy into a secluded area at the oval - like an office or change room - and rape him.
At other times, the pair would meet at the western oval car park and travel in a taxi off club grounds.
Eventually, Hobbs took Mr Kneale to see several other people who would also rape the boy.
"I realised that I was just being handed around for other people's gratification. It was only to get worse after that," Mr Kneale said.
As Mr Kneale got older and Hobbs continued to abuse him, the now-deceased pedophile opened up to him more about what he and others did.
He told a 16-year-old Mr Kneale of gatherings at farmhouses, and "swap meets" where pedophiles would bring their "best boys" to be abused by different people.
Mr Kneale distanced himself from Hobbs but reached out again when he finished school and needed money.
When his daughter was born, though, he realised he had to turn Hobbs in to police, knowing the man was abusing other children including those "not long out of nappies", Mr Kneale said.
The first police station he called didn't believe him, before he got in touch with another station that had a child protection unit and shared his story.
Then - and for the past 30 years - he has relived his abuse, turning to mental health professionals and, for a time, illicit drugs as a way to try to cope with his trauma, Mr Kneale told the court.
"All of it was to escape mental anguish - memories of Hobbs, dreams of Hobbs, the continual footage of places we'd been … it never left me, it still hasn't," he said.
Mr Kneale spent years unable to work after Hobbs received an inadequate jail term and left relationships so as not to burden his partners, deeming himself "damaged beyond repair", he said.
He is suing Footscray Football Club alleging it was vicariously liable for his abuse as it gave Hobbs special access.
The Western Bulldogs reject the claims.
Mr Kneale is also seeking aggravated damages after the club didn't reach out to him when his abuse became public - a failure he says left him with no closure after everything that happened on its grounds.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
beyondblue 1300 22 4636
