US gymnastics doctor Nassar sentenced to 175-years in jail

                                                        

The disgraced US gymnastics doctor, Larry Nassar, has been sentenced to 175 years in jail.

The sentence, which is part of a plea deal in which Nassar admitted to 10 sex assault charges in two Michigan counties, comes on top of a 60-year federal sentence Nassar, 54, also faces for child pornography crimes he pleaded guilty to last year.

In a statement before being sentenced, Nassar apologised to the victims, saying

“There are no words that can express the depth and breadth of how sorry I am.”

Afterward, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina read a letter Nassar had written to the court objecting to the length of the sentencing hearing. In issuing her sentence, Aquilina told Nassar,

“I just signed your death warrant.”

The hearing in Lansing, Michichigan — which began last Tuesday and was expected to feature 88 victim’s statements and take four days — ultimately spanned seven days as dozens more girls and women came forward to confront Nassar.

The parade of harrowing accounts of Nassar’s alleged abuse — often done under the guise of pain therapy, often with parents in the room — introduced fresh national attention and outrage to a case whose core facts have been well-established for nearly a year.

Victims have said they complained about Nassar’s conduct to Michigan State athletics officials as far back as 1997, and in 2014 an investigation by the school’s Title IX office cleared Nassar after a woman alleged he assaulted her.

(AFP/WP)