Justice was well and truly served on Wednesday as disgraced former USA Gymnastics physician Dr Larry Nassar was sentenced to 175 years jail for several counts of sexual abuse.
The decision that Nassar should spend the rest of his life behind bars came from Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who has drawn both praise and criticism for her presiding over the case.
So let’s take a look at the moments that had most of us cheering (and some sad people sulking).
She threw out Nassar’s apology.
In a moment that was so kick-arse, it’s spawned its own GIF, Judge Aquilina showed Nassar just what she thought of him and his apology.
Nassar, who molested his victims under the guise of giving “treatment,” gave a verbal apology in the courtroom after hearing the victim’s statements in which he said he would “carry your words with me for the rest of my days”.
However, before the sentencing hearing ended, Judge Aquilina took a moment to read excerpts from a letter that Nassar had recently written to the court, which showed a completely different perspective.
In it, he argues that his conviction of 60 years jail over child porn charges had coloured people’s view of him, making the trial “unfair”.
“What I did in the state cases was medical, not sexual, but because of the porn I lost all credibility…” Judge Aquilina read aloud from his letter. “It’s wrong. I was a good doctor because my treatments worked and those patients that are now speaking out were the same ones that praised and came back over and over. The media convinced them that it was wrong and bad.”
Top Comments
America may do a lot of things wrong (like every other nation) but what they do get right is tough sentencing. Bye bye Dr Nasser, have fun with the soap.
Outstanding. For a man in such a position of prestige, power, privilege and (above-all) TRUST over young females to abuse it in such a despicable, calculated method, without impunity and with such reckless disregard for the vulnerability of the young women and girls entrusted to his care, the least punishment is to sit there and listen to the destruction he caused. Bravo to the judge and a standing ovation to the dignity and strength shown by the sister victim-survivors. The predators have had their day and with cases like this, it appears the sun is shining evermore brightly in these darkest of places.