A retired Long Island teacher who prosecutors said used his authority to sexually abuse children on trips to the beach and pools was sentenced to up to five decades in prison Wednesday in what the district attorney called justice “long overdue.”

Thomas Bernagozzi, 77, was slapped with a prison term of 33 1/3 years to 50 years in a case that was jumpstarted by a state law that allows child sexual abuse survivors to file civil lawsuits against their alleged tormenters.

Newsday

“Justice has been long overdue for the survivors who bravely came forward to hold their abuser accountable,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said in a statement.

“This defendant violated the sacred trust placed in him as an educator, causing profound harm to the children in his care.”

Bernagozzi, a third-grade teacher at two elementary schools in the Bay Shore school system between 1970 and 2000, used the school’s plays and sports programs to gain students’ trust while also taking them to local beaches, pools, gyms…