Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Witness in trial tells of Sandusky in shower with boy

BELLEFONTE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A former Penn State assistant football coach testified in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse trial on Tuesday that he saw Sandusky naked in a campus locker room shower sexually molesting a young boy.

"There was no way that his genitals were not right up against that young boy's rear end," Mike McQueary, one of the most anticipated witnesses in the trial of Penn State's former football defensive coordinator, told the Pennsylvania jury of the 2001 incident.

Earlier in the second day of testimony in the closely watched trial, a sobbing 18-year-old witness called by the prosecution told jurors that Sandusky had befriended him as a boy, took him to his house and began to sexually abuse him.

The witness said he met Sandusky when he was about 10 or 11 years old through the Second Mile charity that Sandusky founded. He described being sexually abused by Sandusky, including oral sex, adding, "I didn't want it to happen."

Sandusky is accused of using Second Mile, which he opened in 1977, to prey on needy young boys.

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 Penn State and its long-successful football program, prompted the firing of legendary head coach Joe Paterno, and brought national attention to the issue of child sexual abuse.

Two witnesses in the trial have described being sexually abused by Sandusky as boys, and six more alleged victims are due to testify. McQueary became the first bystander to tell jurors he saw Sandusky molesting a boy.

McQueary, then a graduate assistant football coach, testified in Centre County Court that he had gone to the Lasch Football Building on the Pennsylvania State University campus to drop off some shoes in his locker and do some work late on a Friday in February 2001.

When he entered the first of two doors in the staff locker room, he said, he heard "smacking sounds, very much skin-on-skin smacking sounds. I was embarrassed I was walking in on something," said McQueary, a red-haired former Penn State quarterback.

Late that Friday night, McQueary testified, as he walked through the football building and turned toward his locker, he could see, through the reflection in a mirror, the shower room.

He told jurors he saw a naked young boy, who appeared to be 10 to 12 years old, bracing himself against the shower wall. Sandusky, also naked, was behind him, holding the boy around the waist and moving against him, McQueary testified.

McQueary said he saw them in the same position when he looked directly into the shower. McQueary testified he subsequently saw them standing in the shower apart from one another, naked, facing him. The boy, known in court documents as Victim 2, has not been found by authorities.

McQueary said he returned home, called his father and contacted Paterno, Penn State's head football coach, the next day. Paterno's subsequent handling of the information drew heavy criticism when the episode came to light in 2011. Last November, trustees fired Paterno and university President Graham Spanier for failing to act on the allegations.

Paterno died of lung cancer in January at age 85.

Prosecutors allege that Sandusky had physical contact with the boys he is accused of abusing, known in court documents as Victims 1 to 10, that ranged from tickling and a "soap battle" in Penn State showers to oral and anal sex.

'I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO'

Earlier on Tuesday, the 18-year-old witness, identified in court documents as Victim 1, testified that he began spending time at Sandusky's home in State College, home to Penn State, after attending charity events for three years.

Sandusky gradually grew more intimate with him until he would kiss him on the lips and blow on his bare stomach when the boy was ready to go to sleep in Sandusky's basement, the witness testified.

Then one day, "After cracking my back and rubbing his hands down the back of my shorts and blowing on the stomach, he, he put his mouth on my privates," the man said, holding back sobs as a silent courtroom listened.

"I didn't know what to do. With all the thoughts running through my head I kind of blacked out, I didn't want it to happen," the witness added.

The witness began to cry and said Sandusky later had forced him to put his mouth on the coach's genitals. "He said something along the lines of, 'It's your turn,'" the witness said, his head bowed.

The witness testified that Sandusky had performed oral sex on him several times and he had done it to Sandusky at least once.

The white-haired Sandusky sat hunched forward at the defense table, his back to the courtroom.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Joe Amendola, he was asked about discrepancies in his testimony. He had first told investigators in June 2009 that Sandusky performed oral sex on him more than 20 times, but five months later told a grand jury it was about 12 times.

The witness said he had been afraid the first time he talked to investigators and had resolved to tell the truth to the grand jury. He also denied that he and his mother had talked about getting rich from the Sandusky scandal.

The young man's account came after a 28-year-old man, another one of the eight alleged victims of Sandusky due to be prosecution witnesses, told jurors on Monday he had kept silent about the scores of times he was sexually abused by Sandusky because he was ashamed.

Reuters' policy is not to identify victims of sexual crimes.

(Additional reporting by Matt Morgan in Bellefonte; Writing by Tom Brown; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Will Dunham)

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