BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Jerry Sandusky pinned down a foster child and performed oral sex on him, threatened to keep him from seeing his family if he reported what happened and then later told him he loved him, the accuser testified Wednesday.
The man, now 25 and called Victim 10 by prosecutors, told jurors Sandusky assaulted him in the basement of the former Penn State assistant football coach’s State College home in the late 1990s, then threatened to keep him away from his biological family.
“He told me that if I ever told anyone that I’d never see my family again,” the accuser testified, adding that he believed Sandusky’s wife, Dottie, was home at the time.
Later, Sandusky offered a more conciliatory tone.
“He apologized for saying that,” the witness said. “He told me he didn’t mean it and that he loved me.”
The man said Sandusky also assaulted him on other occasions in 1998 and 1999, including once at a pool and another time in the same basement that involved mutual oral sex. He said he was about 11 years old at time of the alleged assaults.
The alleged victim is one of two who came forward after Sandusky was initially charged in November with assaulting eight boys. Sandusky is on trial on 52 criminal counts involving alleged assaults over a 15-year span.
Under cross-examination, the man testified that he was the roommate of another Sandusky accuser at a camp sponsored by Sandusky’s charity, The Second Mile.
The alleged victim also acknowledged having spent nearly two years in state prison for a robbery and involvement with drugs and alcohol, but said he was doing better now.
“I’m married. I’m expecting” a child, he said.
Another man, identified by prosecutors as Victim 7, told jurors that Sandusky showered with him repeatedly and embraced him during sleepovers after he met the then-coach through his charity in 1995, when the witness was 10 years old.
Sandusky was “wrapping himself around me, holding me tightly” when he slept over at his house, the 27-year-old man said.
That contact with a sometimes-shirtless Sandusky has given the man an aversion to chest hair, said the accuser, who also described Sandusky touching him beneath his shorts and pants.
The man recalled attending Penn State games with Sandusky’s family and receiving free tickets from Sandusky as recently as 2009.
“I wanted to go to games, I tried to block that stuff out and focus on the positives,” he said.
The man said he only told his parents of the abuse last year, after being approached by police.
“The more negative thing I sort of put in the back part of my mind — closing a door, putting stuff in the attic is what I feel I did,” he said.
Earlier Wednesday, the father of former assistant coach Mike McQueary told the jury details of a phone call he had with his son after the former Penn State quarterback allegedly saw Sandusky abusing a young boy in a locker room shower.
John McQueary told the court he approached former university vice president Gary Schultz about the allegations to follow-up on his son’s report to the university. The elder McQueary said Schultz told him he’d heard “noises” previously about Sandusky misconduct.
Schultz and the school’s former athletic director each faces charges of failure to report suspected child abuse and perjury related to their grand jury testimony about Sandusky. Both maintain their innocence.
John McQueary’s testimony ended with an unusual exchange with one of Sandusky’s attorneys. McQueary apparently couldn’t recall testifying at the preliminary hearing for Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley, even after the attorney showed McQueary a transcript from the hearing.
Two other alleged victims have already testified, describing in graphic detail encounters with the coach that happened after they met him through his charity for at-risk youth.
Sandusky, 68, has denied the allegations. Authorities say he abused the boys in hotels, at his home and inside the football team’s headquarters.
Sandusky’s attorneys have suggested his accusers have financial motivations for coming forward.
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