Doctor who sexually abused gymnasts stabbed in prison

Larry Nassar was in a stable condition after being stabbed twice in the neck, six times in the chest and twice in the back.

Larry Nassar appears in a Lansing, Michigan, court in 2017. Picture: AFP

Larry Nassar, the former gymnastics doctor who sexually abused hundreds of his patients, was stabbed multiple times in federal prison on Sunday.

Nassar was stabbed twice in the neck, six times in the chest and twice in the back at the Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, in central Florida’s Sumter County.

Jose Rojas, a union leader representing prison employees, on Monday said Nassar suffered a collapsed lung but was in stable condition.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said an incident occurred about 2.35pm. The inmate was transferred to a local hospital for treatment. No one else was injured and an investigation into the incident was ongoing.

Nassar is serving an effective life sentence after being convicted of federal child-pornography and obstruction charges and state sex-assault charges. He was transferred to the high-security facility in Florida, which has 1200 male prisoners, after being assaulted at a federal prison in Arizona.

The disgraced former gymnastics doctor was accused by hundreds of women and girls of sexually assaulting them under the guise of medical treatment while he was working for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University over three decades.

He pleaded guilty to the state sexual-abuse charges and federal child-pornography and obstruction counts and was sentenced in late 2017 and early 2018.

Some of the biggest names in American gymnastics have said they were abused by him, including the entire 2012 women’s Olympic team and the star of the 2016 Rio Olympics, Simone Biles.

In December 2021, USA Gymnastics, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and their insurers agreed to fund a $US380m settlement with survivors of Nassar’s abuse.

Michigan State University settled claims with survivors for $US500m in 2018. A slew of leaders resigned across those institutions after reports of missteps in responding to complaints about Nassar. Gymnasts have also sued the FBI for $US1bn, saying the agency disregarded concerns raised about Nassar in 2015.

Lawyer Sarah Klein, a gymnast assaulted by Nassar, posted on Twitter saying news of the attack “brings no peace to me personally or to the survivors I’ve spoken with today.”

“I urge the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons to see that Nassar is not allowed to escape his sentence and consequences of his horrible crimes,” she wrote.

The Wall Street Journal