Gymnastics doctor to spend 40 to 175 years behind bars
LANSING, Mich. — The former sports doctor who admitted molesting some of the top gymnasts in the United States for years under the guise of medical treatment was sentenced Wednesday to 40 to 175 years in prison by a judge who proudly told him, “I just signed your death warrant.”
The sentence capped a remarkable seven-day hearing in which more than 150 of Larry Nassar’s victims offered statements about the physician who was renowned for treating athletes at the sport’s highest levels. Some confronted him face to face in the Michigan courtroom.
“It is my honour and privilege to sentence you. You do not deserve to walk outside a prison ever again. You have done nothing to control those urges and anywhere you walk, destruction will occur to those most vulnerable,” Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said.
Nassar’s actions were “precise, calculated, manipulative, devious, despicable,” she said.
When the hearing ended, the courtroom broke into applause. Victims and prosecutors embraced at the conclusion of the gruelling 16-month case.
Before serving the Michigan sentence, the 54-year-old Nassar must first serve a 60-year federal sentence for child pornography crimes. With credits for good behaviour, he could complete that sentence in about 55 years. But by then, he would be more than 100 years old if still alive. He is scheduled to be sentenced next week on more assault convictions in Eaton County, Mich.
A prosecutor called Nassar “possibly the most prolific serial child sex abuser in history” and said he found competitive gymnastics to be a “perfect place” for his crimes because victims saw him as a “god.”
Prosecutor Angela Povilaitis also said Nassar “perfected a built-in excuse and defence” as a doctor, even though he was “performing hocus-pocus medicine.”
“It takes some kind of sick perversion to not only assault a child but to do so with her parent in the room,” Povilaitis said. Although Nassar’s work with gymnasts received the most attention, the allegations against him spanned a dozen sports over 25 years.
Nassar pleaded guilty to assaulting seven people in the Lansing area, but the sentencing hearing was open to anyone who said they were a victim. His accusers said he would use his ungloved hands to penetrate them, often without explanation, while they were on a table seeking help for various injuries.
The accusers, many of whom were children, said they trusted Nassar to care for them properly and were in denial about what was happening or were afraid to speak up. He sometimes used a sheet or his body to block the view of any parent in the room.
Nassar turned to the courtroom gallery to make a brief statement, saying that the victims’ accounts had “shaken me to my core.” He said “no words” can describe how sorry he is for his crimes.
“I will carry your words with me for the rest of my days” he said as many of his accusers wept.