More than a decade after his child sexual abuse conviction, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky continues to maintain his innocence and claims his accusers were “coached and guided” in their testimony and motivated by money to lie.
Sandusky, now 80, made the remarks from Laurel Highlands State Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania, where he is serving time on 45 counts of child sexual abuse, ranging from enticement to assault.
“I’ve never in my life ever intended to abuse anyone,” Sandusky told DailyMail.com.
“I have been accused of a heinous crime but I have not committed any such thing. My wife has been my only sexual partner after marriage,” he added.
He believes Sandusky was “wrongfully convicted on the basis of contradictory and false testimony” and claims his victims were “coached and induced to lie” by police and therapists, suggesting they were motivated by money because “no one came forward.”
Lawyers for the former Penn State coach have filed their latest motion seeking a new trial. They are appealing, among other things, the use of suppressed memory therapy against the plaintiffs.
Sandusky feels that this technique, using hypnosis to retrieve repressed memories, would not hold up in a court of law today, and says the original jury should have heard more testimony about it.
“We now have evidence that there was suppressed memory therapy, and we have experts ready to testify about how to analyze what happened,” he explained.
“Their stories have changed. The important thing is, everyone has changed,” he argued.
During his 2012 trial, victims testified that Sandusky subjected them to a range of abuse, from sexual advances to physical assaults.
The abuse, which took place between 1994 and 2009, involved young men he met through the Second Mile charity, an organisation he set up for at-risk young people, which he used to seek out and lure child victims.
The letters written by the victims described the impact of the abuse they suffered as boys and in the years that followed, detailing their anxiety, difficulties in relating to their families and society, and anger at what had happened to them.
One of the victims, identified in court documents as Victim No. 4, said she had not forgiven Sandusky and spoke of efforts to “attack us as if we had done something wrong.”
“We both know exactly what happened,” Victim 4 wrote. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Penn State has paid more than $100 million to more than 30 victims who say they were sexually abused by Sandusky.
Sandusky’s wife, Dottie, who supported him for the past 12 years, argued that if she believed he was abusing their children, she would have left him.
“I know who Jerry is. I didn’t see anything but I was here. If Jerry had done these things I would have told someone I wasn’t with him,” she told the media.
“That’s the kind of person he is – if he messes up or does something wrong, he apologizes for it.”
A hearing in Sandusky’s case is scheduled for June 26, but it was not immediately clear how quickly a verdict would be reached if a retrial were granted.
Sandusky’s lawyers are also seeking court-ordered damages, which were initially nearly $98,000 but were reduced to about $44,000 a decade after the trial.
He was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.
