EXUS gymnastics doctor sentenced to 40175 yrs in jail for sexual abuse
LANSING (USA): The former sports doctor who admitted molesting some of the nation’s top gymnasts for years was sentenced on Wednesday to 40 to 175 years in prison as the judge declared: “I just signed your death warrant.”
The sentence capped a remarkable seven-day hearing in which scores of Larry Nassar’s victims were able to confront him face to face in a Michigan courtroom. Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said Nassar’s “decision to assault was precise, calculated, manipulative, devious, despicable.”
“It is my honor 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.”
Nassar found competitive gymnastics to be a “perfect place” for his crimes because victims saw him as a “god” in the sport, a prosecutor said shortly before the former doctor was to be sentenced for years of molesting Olympic gymnasts and others.
“It takes some kind of sick perversion to not only assault a child but to do so with her parent in the room,” prosecutor Angela Povilaitis said. “To do so while a lineup of eager young gymnasts waited.”
She described the “breadth and ripple” of Nassar’s sexual abuse as “nearly infinite”. “What does it say about our society that victims have to hide their pain for years when they did nothing wrong?” Povilaitis said.