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DISGRACED FORMER US Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing scores of young girls under the guise of medical treatment.
“I’ve just signed your death warrant,” Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said as she handed down the sentence after a week of gut-wrenching testimony by over 150 of Nassar’s victims.
“You do not deserve to walk outside of a prison ever again,” the judge told the 54-year-old Nassar in a tense Lansing, Michigan, courtroom. “Anywhere you walk destruction will occur to those most vulnerable.”
Minutes ahead of the sentencing, Nassar apologised in court to his victims, who included Olympic gold-medal winners Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney but also scores of female athletes at Michigan State University, where he worked.
“What I am feeling pales in comparison to the pain, trauma, and emotional destruction that all of you are feeling,” Nassar said, turning at several points to face his victims in court.
“There are no words to describe the depth and breadth of how sorry I am for what has occurred,” he said.
More than 150 women and girls accused Nassar of a pattern of serial abuse dating back two decades.
The final woman to deliver a statement in court was Rachael Denhollander, the first to publicly accuse Nassar of abuse and file a police report against him.
Calling for the maximum sentence, she asked the judge: “How much is a little girl worth? How much is a young woman worth.”
Denhollander said the “brazen sexual assault” upon her occurred when she was 15 years old and was carried out “with my own mother in the room,” unaware of what was going on.
‘No white flag’
“I assured myself it must be fine because I could trust the adults around me,” Denhollander said.
“Larry found sexual satisfaction in our suffering,” she added.
“I pray you experience the soul-crushing weight of guilt,” she told the slight, bespectacled Nassar, who was dressed in a blue jumpsuit with the words “Ingham County Jail” on the back.
Also speaking to Nassar, Sterling Riethman, 25, said: “This army you have created, we are 150 women strong and counting.
“And let me tell you, this army isn’t going anywhere,” she said, addressing Nassar but also sporting authorities at USA Gymnastics (USAG), the US Olympic Committee (USOC) and Michigan State University.
“We are here to show you,” Riethman said, “there is no white flag to wave when it comes to protecting little girls and their futures.”
Already sentenced to 60 years in prison on federal child pornography charges, Nassar pleaded guilty to 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct. He was sentenced Wednesday on seven of those counts, with a final additional sentence to be handed down late this month.
Riethman thanked Judge Aquilina for opening up the sentencing phase of the trial to anyone who wished to share their experiences, in what turned into a cathartic experience for many survivors.
Parents spoke of the anguish of failing to protect their children from a predator, and women spoke of post-traumatic stress and deep emotional scars.
Olympic gold-medal winning gymnast Aly Raisman, confronting Nassar on Friday, echoed the words and feelings of many athletes.
“You are so sick. I can’t even comprehend how angry I feel when I think of you,” Raisman said.
“Larry, you do realise now that we, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long a period of time, are now a force and you are nothing.”
As victim after victim detailed Nassar’s actions, they also slammed a lack of accountability among sporting institutions, with Raisman in particular demanding an independent probe of USA Gymnastics to find out how Nassar was able to abuse girls with impunity.
Three members of the USAG board of directors resigned on Monday, while John Geddert, a star coach who owns the Twistars gym, was suspended pending an investigation.
USAG also severed ties with the famed Karolyi Ranch, the Texas training facility once considered a breeding ground of champions, where Nassar reportedly had unfettered access to young girls.
Michigan State University is also feeling the heat: the body overseeing US collegiate sports, the NCAA, has opened an investigation after a report claimed MSU president Lou Anna Simon, athletics trainers, assistant coaches and others were long informed of misconduct claims against Nassar.
Nassar remained employed at the university until September 2016, when allegations against him were first made public by a newspaper.
MSU is now facing multiple lawsuits. Simon has resisted claims to resign, but the university has asked the state attorney general’s office to investigate the school’s handling of the case.
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Of course there should be a shelter/refuge for men also. I think keeping the centres single sex is important given the sensitive nature of how these people end up there.
At last an article about male victims. This is the best article i have read on Domestic Violence. Of course DV against men is disgusting and there should be a shelter. Things are pretty sad when they have to sleep on the streets and leave the kids with their violent mother.
And as the article says … Why should a person who is experiencing DV have to leave their home?
I know a woman with 2 small kids with a verbally abusive husband. Everytime her husband kicks off she has to leave her home with the kids and stay at a somebodys place. And the husband stays at home in his big comfy chair drinking beer til he has calmed down and its “safe” for her to return. She’d love if he was removed from the home. But as the article says it is not easy.
Nothing about domestic violence is easy…..
Articles about female domestic abuse 1023. Articles about male domestic abuse 1.
That would be near enough the odds of women to men abused.
Excellent article. It is about time that this problem was highlighted.
Domestic abuse, physical or emotional, is just disgusting and it’s something we need to start taking a lot more seriously. It’s difficult in the current economic situation but we have to find a way of ensuring there is adequate support available for any man, woman or child facing abuse.
The biggest problem with men facing abuse is that it is trivialised…this has to change and only requires a change of mindset.
Familes support group in Limerick set up the first refuge for men in Ireland but had to close it due to lack of funding , plenty of funding for Women’s groups all over Ireland and thats needed too, wheres the equality . Women’s groups get government funding for their groups for staff and services , mens groups are few and mainly run on a voluntary basis http://www.familes.ie helpline 0872603603
Excellent article.Unfortunately the gender equality revolution has created dark spaces in society such as this,which the govt and powers that be are reluctant to shine a light on and deal with,as they’ve been totally complicit in their creation.
This is such an important issue. Delighted to see it being raised. Support services should not be restricted on the basis of gender. Short term emergency accommodation can always be funded via hotels. The law regard in women’s rights to automatically keep custody of children makes the situation all the more unfair. It is my understanding that a wife can, if she wishes, easily expel a husband and father from a family home. Great job.
Thank you. I believe that domestic violence is a problem for both sexes.
We have all been conditioned to believe that only women are victims but just like sexual abuse there is a smaller but equally damaged group of male victims.
As well there are some who become victims due to the mental illness of partners, when this occurs the person with the illness can be sectioned but there is no support for the often traumatized other partner who now has to figure out what to do next whilst literally to traumatized to even move.
Well written
As someone who had a physically abusive girlfriend in the past, I have to say the inability to defend myself was probably one of the worst aspects as a man, the fear that if I defended myself and she called the police they would only see her side really impacted more than anything else. The laws in this country while fairly evenly balanced to each sex always fail at certain junctures, we all know the old gem..boys should not hit girls, unfortunatly that is applied in alot of case’s even when its self defence from the male side.
One wonders how many incidents of suicide have there been because of ongoing emotional abuse by the female in relationship. If the man had a place to go then maybe we would not have as many suicides?
Who knows
I don’t think domestic violence is taken seriously enough at all. Men are told to “man up”, women are blamed for their own victimisation. Sure how many decades did it take for people to listen to survivors who have been abused by the church? Societal attitudes need to change before we see any progress with these issues.
…….
Jaysus…
For the same reason that no woman is ever held in contempt of court for serial abuse of a child’s right to be with their father. Judges are supporters of child abuse.
John Mooney
Your comment is in a nutshell but very true.
Judges also live in fear of retribution of feminists or even just ordinary female individuals.
The whole Irish legal system is geared towards mothers and children. This has to change.
Catherine Mill…
You know perfectly well that your comment is utter bull and does not deserve thought or comment❗️
@Catherine You continue to make these serious claims about our courts with regard to how they treat women so unfairly, yet you present no proof, we’re just supposed to take your word for it. The fact of the matter is that in this country, as in most countries in the West, women consistently get far more lenient sentences for the same crimes as men. The truth is that the courts look more favourably on women. A quick google search revealed the sentences are on average 40% less for women committing the same crime as men in the UK, it would be naïve to presume Ireland is much different.
Yet again you post a link to something from an other country as if it has some merit to the discussion here, it does not. Fox news is not a credible source of information.
If you’re going to go back 5,000 years and blame men and blame men for the crimes committed against American slaves, American Indians, immigrants, the impoverished, the sick, or immoral where does it end?
Did you stop to think that most of those American slaves that were worked and beaten to death were men, the American Indians who were killed in their thousands were principally men as women and children were not considered a threat. Men also immigrated, were sick and impoverished. Or do you seriously think the world consists entirely of women who are beaten down by men for millennia. It was the wealthy who did this to the poor, it wasn’t some uber class of men. Only the wealthy, upper class could vote, not just men, you had to be rich but people like you pretend that men ruled the world and withheld the vote from women.
On another note, if Catherine can spout this sort of unsupported nonsense on a whim why was my previous post today removed? I replied to someone else and quoted other studies, dates etc. This gives the impression that if I just spout some nonsense rant it’ll be allowed but if I reply with a logical argument and quote facts and figures someone will complain (guess who) and it’ll be removed. The result is very one sided.
@jedi Knight, I have already emailed the author in regards to this blatant attempt of censorship. Yet allowing Catherine Mill post complete and utter nonsense.
Just a question but would female domestic abuse of men also entail withholding of finances as in the reverse case? The refuges for women were established in a time when women depended on men for money. I know it isnt always the case but it is still common….
Because women are always right!
That what she says!
@ The Journal We have seen several articles surrounding the subject of Domestic Violence recently, notably in the week of June 9th to 15th, Mens Health Week, leading up to Fathers Day, this gave many of us pause to wonder exactly what the Hell was going on here.
When some of us tried to point out that this was not just an issue that happened to women, by men but was an issue effecting society and could happen to anyone in any relationship we were shouted down. One person said there was plenty of support for men. Now, finally, you have an article telling our side of the argument, as it were, but again there are those who would prefer to hijack the discussion. I’ve met them before, in person. Some years ago I was at a discussion on the subject and as it got heated I said “look I was stabbed”, a snort and rolling eyes, so I showed the scar where she missed my heart by less than an inch. This woman’s response said it all for me, “well IF it happened you probably did something to deserve it”. You cannot reason with someone like that. I’m supposed to respect them and their point of view yet they in turn treat me with utter contempt, view me as something they’d scrape off their shoe. They are what they claim men to be, they hate use because of our plumbing.
I’m quite willing to have a reasoned debate, to present logical arguments to have a laugh at times, but this is impossible with this “toxic element”. As far as I can see they can hijack any debate they choose and make unsubstantiated wild accusations, rants and claims but if anyone counters them they make a complaint and have those posts removed. This is not equality and this is not what I expected from The Journal.
Hi Jed I – a number of comments have been removed, and comments that were flagged overnight were also removed this morning.
I can’t see a previous post by you that was removed – the comment that you left about the ESRI study is still up. So as far as I can see, none of your comments on here were removed. If you left a comment with a number of links, that would have to be approved. Perhaps it got stuck in my spam mail, I’ll have a look for it.
I have, however, removed comments from people that called posters ‘nut jobs’ and ‘lunatics’. It should be self-explanatory why that occurred.
Aoife
Hi Jed I – I’ve had another look at the comments and it seems that when Anne Clarke’s comment was removed, your reply went with it. I’ll ask tech can I get it reinstated. It wasn’t deleted ‘on purpose’ – reply threads tend to disappear when the first comment goes.
Aoife
Domestic Violence is a social issue, not a gender problem. It will never be reduced until both sides of the problem are acknowledged and addressed by those who claim to be concerned about it.
The persistent claim that the overwhelming majority of victims of domestic violence are women is not supported by any impartial research, either in the UK or elsewhere. The results of all gender-neutral studies of domestic violence in couple relationships, published to date, indicate that there is an almost equal numerical culpability between men and women.
In spite of mounting evidence the issue of women’s violence has been discounted or ignored by the media, law enforcement agencies and the social services. Furthermore, there is reason to be alarmed when our understanding of family violence, policy making and allocation of scarce resources has been significantly shaped without regard to an abundance of evidence showing that family violence as a social phenomenon is not gender-specific. This clearly has important implications for research, education funding and social policy.
The technique of collecting data from Women’s Aid type groups is misleading the public about domestic violence because they use surveys that show higher rates of men as aggressors based on National Crime Survey data or official law-enforcement records, but these studies are flawed methodologically because the samples are not representative and because men are less likely to lodge official victimisation reports.
Another problem with much of the domestic violence literature is that it is based on clinical populations, specifically battered women receiving shelter services or therapy. Data collected and conclusions drawn from those who seek shelter or therapy cannot be generalised to the broader population. Victims who seek services may differ significantly from the broader population, so the value of these studies lies primarily in spawning clinical prescriptions for treatment, not in describing or explaining domestic violence in general. Studies of residents in shelters for battered women are sometimes cited to show that it is only their male partners who are violent. However, these studies rarely obtain or report information on assaults by women, and, when they do, they ask only about self-defence, precluding information on female initiated assaults.
They had them in UK and not one man used them, so maybe this is why Ireland does not have one? We always copy USA and UK.
@Catherine stop Trolling. Only you would hijack this article pointing out men are victims to. Seriously get a life and stop telling lies.
@Catherine A previous poster on this topic provided the telling statistic that while both sexes are equally capable of being violent in a relationship there are currently no women in prison in Ireland for Domestic Violence, only men. This is yet another proof, if any was needed, of the courts treating women differently than men.
If you leave the home , you will be done for desertion and lose everything.
I do not want anyone coming on here saying this is not true – or I will post the judgment as proof.
The courts are not secret for nothing.
All this male V Female DV plays right into the hands of perpetrators and those who make money out of victims.
Victims have to exist for the agencies to make money = FACT.
Look at the court corporation and all involved in DV cases.
Always blame the victim, because s/he will fight for justice.
Solicitors will assist the perpetrator in the winning formula and there is one.
To the court agents its all just an Act – get it – DV Act.
Its all about making profit from victims and their children.
Not wise to disclose DV either lest the snatchers take the children.
Don’t report and they take them too. Catch 22.
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