Former USA sports doctor slapped with 175 years jail sentence for sexual offences
Athletics
By
Japheth Ogila
| Jan 25, 2018
“I just signed your death warrant.” That was a statement by Michigan State-based Judge Rosemarie Aquilina that nailed the sorry fate of former American Gymnastics team Doctor Lawrence G. Nassar, who could no hide his teary face in the court room.
Dr Lawrence Nassar has been handed 40 to 175 years jail sentence, after being found guilty of molesting young girls who sought his medical services.
According to the reports by CNN, Nassar, 54, has had his dwindling tribulations aggravated by the testimonial accounts of 150 girls that accused him of committing the crime.
Once revered as the best physician in the sports arena, Nassar is said to have taken advantage of his stature as an expertise adviser too far. While working as the USA’s top most physician, he is said to have opted for inappropriate touching among other vices on the young athletes who would turn up for his services to overcome injury.
While speaking at the court during his trial and sentence, American gymnast and two-Olympian Aly Raisman delivered a strong message to the disgraced medic emphasizing that ‘they have found their voices back.’
“We, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force, and you are nothing…The tables have turned, Larry. We are here. We have our voices, and we are not going anywhere." Said Raisman. CNN reveals that Raisman has been a vocal member of the “army of survivors”, a group of young American female athletes that have launched sexual molestation against Nassar.
Reports indicate two turns of events where Nassar pleaded guilty of the offence and went as far as apologizing to the victims. New York Times indicate that Larry confessed to the girls that he has been touched by the testimony and as a consequence he feels sorry for them.
“Your words these past several days have had a significant effect on myself and have shaken me to my core. I will carry your words with me for the rest of my days.” Said Nassar as New York Times indicate.
This preceded his letter to the court where he accused aggrieved young women of seeking cheap publicity and looking for money in the media. His letter was decorated with famous quote…’Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’
The former Michigan State University Doctor is reported to have been shelled by ‘powerful’ forces within the institutions that he worked for, insomuch that complaints of molestation would be brushed aside by the authorities.
Victims that went through the ordeal have not spared the institutions that employed Nassar either. Most of them narrated their harrowing tales while pointing accusing fingers at the said institutions for turning their backs on the mass human rights violations.
"Michigan State University, the school I loved and trusted, had the audacity to tell me that I did not understand the difference between sexual assault and a medical procedure," Amanda Thomashow said in court as CNN reveals.
Amanda went ahead to say that a behavior by the institution was a major leeway that propagated her sexual assault as her oppressor was cushioned from condemnation. On the other hand, various institutions have denied any wrong doing and as a matter of fact.
This comes merely few months after Nassar was to 60 years imprisonment on counts of engaging in child pornography as well as molestation.
Pressure from various quarters especially from the athletics fraternity have been piled on the Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon forcing her to quit. This is said to have paved way for investigation into what could turn out to be world’s most famous sexual molestation case to ever fall the world of sport.