Larry Nassar case: The 156 (women who faced a predator)

Larry Nassar case: The 156 (women who faced a predator)

Larry Nassar

Former Olympic physician Larry Nassar was sentenced to 175 years in Michigan for abusing female athletes he was supposed to treat.

Here, Rajini Vaidyanathan of the BBC, who was in court, and Roland Hughes detail the extraordinary testimony given to the court by the survivors of his abuse.

This article contains graphic details of sexual abuse

He started with him exposing himself. Later, he would masturbate in front of her. Then he physically abused her - while their two families were in the same house.

When Kyle, age 12, told his parents that Nassar rubbed his erect penis on his bare feet, he denied it. At the time, her parents did not believe her, and urged her to apologize to him.

"It forced me to grow up very fast," Kyle told the BBC after the hearing. "It was such a benign action until you grew up and realized it was a vile thing.

One hundred and fifty-six young women - mothers, sisters, daughters, Olympians.

All say they were abused by the same man: the former gymnastics doctor of the American team Larry Nassar.

For seven days, they rose to the bar one by one to do what few survivors of sexual abuse had the opportunity to do - confront their abuser directly.

Nassar had previously pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sexual assault for abusing girls under medical treatment.

The women who lodged a complaint against Nassar spoke at the sentencing hearing in Lansing. But they were followed by nearly 150 others, many of whom chose to do so without the anonymity to which they were entitled.

Kyle Stephens was the first to tell his story.

Larry Nassar

For years, she was known only as a ZA victim, but on Tuesday morning she appeared before Judge Rosemarie Aquilina and calmly shared her name.

In doing so, she gave up her anonymity in public while she was about to testify

pity that his attacker had done.

"I was ready to talk," Kyle said in an interview with the BBC after his testimony. "I think it was really exciting to go out there and tell my story from start to finish."

"Well, Larry, I'm here," she told him in court. "Do not tell someone, but tell everyone.

"Perhaps you have already understood, but little girls do not stay forever small, they become strong women who come back to destroy your world."

In her teens, Kyle was asked to keep both of Nassar's daughters. This helped her to protect them, she told the court, and saved her enough money to pay for counseling.

Having reached a point where she had begun to wonder whether the abuse had actually occurred, she again tried to explain to her parents what had happened.

This time, they believed it.

Larry Nassar

Carrie Hogan, a former MSU softball player, told the court that it was a "privilege" to be treated by Nassar. Successful treatment could make the difference for university stars at the edge of a sporting career.

"I was very aware of the signed photos of the Olympic gymnasts he had treated," she said. "He was the best of the best." Others said he was considered a "god" in the world of gymnastics.

In an episode of a gymnastics podcast aired in December 2013, Nassar spoke of the importance of caring for young athletes. 

"Not only physically but mentally, you have to protect your athletes," he told GymCastic, speaking unusually slowly. "You must let them know that they will be healed."

"I remember having the option to keep my spandex, which I was very grateful for and chose," said Jennifer Rood Bedford, volleyball player at MSU between 2000 and 2003.

"When he started the treatment, I remember he said that his treatment was based on the application of pressure on areas around the basin and that was normal.

Larry Nassar

"So when he went there, I just said it was normal, he knew what he was doing and did not become a baby.

"I remember sitting there and saying," Are you okay? "

Rachael Denhollander, a former gymnast from Michigan, was the first victim to speak publicly in 2016.

She told the BBC that Nassar abused her every visit she made to her clinic more than a year after her 15th birthday.

"I wanted to believe the best of people, but no matter how much I rationalized - he's a doctor, he treats you, he did not want that to happen - I could not shake the voice in my head that something was going on not right. "