(Reuters) – The child sexual abuse trial of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky heads into its third day on Wednesday already marked by graphic testimony.
The Centre County courtroom fell silent on Tuesday when a sobbing teenage witness told jurors he was 10 0r 11 years old when Sandusky befriended him through a charity he ran, the Second Mile, and later sexually abused him.
Sandusky eventually performed oral sex on him, the 18-year-old witness said. “I didn’t want it to happen,” he said, his head bowed.
Sandusky, 68, faces 52 counts of abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period. If convicted on all counts, he faces a sentence of more than 500 years in prison.
The case shook Pennsylvania State University and its long-successful football program, prompted the firing of head coach Joe Paterno, and brought national attention to the issue of child sexual abuse.
A former Penn State football coach, Mike McQueary, testified on Tuesday that he had seen Sandusky and a boy between 10 and 12 in a shower at a Penn State locker room in February 2001. The boy has not been identified.
McQueary said he saw Sandusky behind the boy and both were naked.
There were “skin-on-skin slapping sounds, yes. Sex,” the former coach said.
Sandusky’s defense attorneys, Joe Amendola and Karl Rominger, questioned McQueary’s testimony, pointing out discrepancies in accounts to police and a grand jury about the date of the alleged incident and at what point the boy had seen him.
They also said the 18-year-old witness and McQueary were looking to get money out of the case. The teenage witness has hired an attorney, and McQueary, who lost his job as an assistant coach, has said he is planning a whistleblower suit against the university.
Two accusers have testified, and an additional six are scheduled to take the stand. Judge John Cleland has said the trial should run until the end of the month.
Reuters’ policy is not to identify victims of sexual crimes.
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
