BELLEFONTE, Pa. (Oct. 9, 2012) — Former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was sentenced today to at least 30 years in prison for abusing and molesting 10 boys over a 15-year period.
Sandusky gave a rambling statement in which he denied the allegations and talked about his life in prison and the pain of being away from his family, according to the Associated Press.
Four victims and a mother of one of the victims also spoke.
Sandusky was found guilty in June of 45 counts of child sexual abuse. He could have faced up 400 years for his convictions.
Witnesses testified that the former defensive coordinator used a charitable foundation he founded for troubled children to find and groom boys to become his victims, the AP said.
Eight of the boys he was found guilty of molesting testified at his trial. One of the prosecution’s star witnesses, former graduate assistant Mike McQueary, testified that he saw Sandusky raping a boy in a locker room shower.
The scandal rocked Penn State and the college football world. Head coach Joe Paterno, who was a revered figure in college football, was fired Nov. 9 amid allegations that he didn’t properly report concerns about Sandusky to authorities. He died of cancer in January at age 85.
University President Graham Spanier resigned in November, and Athletic Director Tim Curley is on administrative leave. Senior Vice President Gary Schultz retired. Curley and Schultz face separate trials on charges that they lied to a grand jury about what they knew.
The university’s storied football program was fined $60 million by the NCAA and was stripped of all victories back to 1998.
Sandusky’s lead attorney, Joe Amendola, told reporters outside court that he would file an appeal within 10 days, saying he hadn’t had enough time to prepare an adequate defense, according to NBC News.
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