Penn State assistant football coach facing life in prison after being found guilty in 45 of 48 charges in child sex abuse trial
Jerry Sandusky, the Penn State assistant coach whose persistent acts of sexual predation on children were allowed to fester within one of the most hallowed franchises in American college football, faces a maximum sentence of up to 500 years in prison after he was found guilty of 45 counts of serial paedophilia.
The jury in the trial of the once-lauded coach returned on their second day of deliberations. It found Sandusky guilty of 45 out of 48 counts.
Sandusky's conviction brings to an end a dismal chapter in the history of famed college football team. His prosecution for preying on underaged boys over a 15 year period prompted the dismissal Joe Paterno, the much loved chief coach who died in January.
Paterno's sacking for having failed to report Sandusky's predatory acts to outside police led to riots on the Penn State campus and plunged the university into a crisis from which it is still reeling. The president of the university, Graham Spanier, also lost his job and criminal proceedings are on-going against two university administrators alleged to have turned a blind eye to Sandusky's crimes.
Over seven days of testimony, the jury heard how Sandusky, 68, systematically lured a succession of boys into his sexual trap over 15 years. The charges against him related to 10 victims, eight of whom took the stand at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and gave evidence anonymously.
The eight accusers now range in age from 18 to 28. They include a sergeant in the US army who has seen active duty in Iraq; a graduate from Bible college; and a man who has been imprisoned for robbery.
The oldest victim related in his testimony how he had first come into contact with Sandusky through the Second Mile, the charity for troubled children that Sandusky ran after he retired from coaching in 1999.
The witness recalled how Sandusky had showered him with gifts of sporting equipment and tickets to Penn State home games, and then had begun to take showers with him before forcing him to perform oral sex. "I spent so many years burying this in the back of my head. I feel responsible for what happened to the other victims," the man said.
The prosecution also called Mike McQueary, an assistant coach at Penn State who testified that he had stumbled upon Sandusky having sex with an underaged boy in the showers at the football team's locker room. He had heard the sound of "skin-on-skin slapping" and seen Sandusky with his arms wrapped around the unidentified boy's waist.
Sandusky's defence team, led by Joseph Amendola, sought to poke holes in the prosecution case by suggesting that the victims had financial motives for seeing the defendant brought down. Sandusky himself did not give evidence, though his wife Dottie did, telling the jury that she had never been aware of any inappropriate behaviour on the part of her husband.
The couple adopted six children over the years. While the jury had been considering its verdict, it was revealed that one of their adopted sons, Matt Sandusky, had himself offered to give evidence against his father, saying that he had been sexually abused too.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/23/jerry-sandusky-guilty-sexual-abuse
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