In an interview broadcast on Thursday in a segment of Winfrey's
"Oprah Prime" program, Matthew Sandusky, the youngest of the
family's six adopted children, also said he found it hard to believe
that his adoptive mother, Jerry Sandusky's wife Dottie, had been
unaware of the abuse.
"She has walked into the bedroom when I was laying on top of Jerry
Sandusky in my underwear," recalled Matthew Sandusky, now aged 33.
Dottie Sandusky was shown in a separate video clip asserting that
her husband was innocent and had not molested anyone. She has
accused Matthew Sandusky of stealing her husband's football
championship rings, a claim he denied in Thursday's interview.
In a case that rocked the world of college athletics, Jerry Sandusky
was jailed in 2012 for between 30 and 60 years, for using his
position in the prestigious Penn State football program to sexually
abuse 10 boys over a period of 15 years.
In the interview, Matthew Sandusky said the abuse he suffered was
not greatly different from that described by witnesses who testified
at his adoptive father's trial.
But his television appearance was the first opportunity for most
people to hear that story directly from a victim, since the trial
was not televised.
He said Sandusky's abuse of him began with a hand on his knee as he
rode in a car with the coach at the age of 9. Over time, he said,
his adoptive father escalated the level of inappropriate physical
contact to kissing him on the lips and lying on top of him while
aroused.
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The abuse ultimately grew into instances of forced oral copulation
and sodomy, with some of the sexual assaults occurring while he was
in the shower, Matthew Sandusky said.
During the interview, he also recounted a troubled upbringing by a
single mother prior to his adoption by the Sandusky family, and
admitted to several arrests as a teen and a suicide attempt.
At the age of 16, given a choice between going to juvenile prison or
being adopted by the Sanduskys, he chose adoption.
Matthew Sandusky is one of 26 men abused by the coach who have
shared in a total settlement with Penn State of $59.7 million.
(Reporting by David DeKok; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Steve Gorman
and Clarence Fernandez)
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