Dr Larry Nassar Hearing

Doctor Larry Nassar, a Michigan sports doctor, who treated elite female US gymnasts, including Olympic gymnasts, has been charged with sexually assaulting young girls.

Nassar was the team doctor for USA Gymnastics from 1996 to 2015 and served as team physician for several sports at MSU from the 1990s to 2015. He also served as a physician for Twistars, a Michigan gymnastics center.

Nassar is facing nine charges in Ingham County, including first-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2015 against a victim under age 13.

Nassar is also charged in nearby Eaton County, where three females say he molested them with his hands at a gymnastics club during treatments for various injuries, according to a police affidavit. They were young girls or teens at the time.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has filed 22 counts of criminal sexual conduct by Nassar.

Five counts involved girls who were under the age of 13 at the time of the alleged abuse.. The rest involved girls between ages 13 and 16.

More than half the 22 charges directly relate to his work as a doctor at Michigan State University’s Sports Medicine practice and the rest are tied to his work with a gymnastics club.

The detailed, graphic court documents outline how Nassar allegedly penetrated girls with his fingers under the guise of medical treatment in his office and at a local gym

The doctor has denied allegations of abuse in the past. Dr Nassar has said he was carrying out legitimate procedures.

Osteopathic care does include a therapy in which practitioners massage the vagina to relieve back and hip pain. But the therapist is expected to wear surgical gloves in all circumstances and have a chaperone present if the patient is a minor. The gymnasts say they were often alone with Nassar and he did not wear gloves.

Larry Nassar also faces charges in two cases that were filed in 2016 and are unrelated to his work as a doctor.  He is accused of molesting the daughter of family friends repeatedly at her family home ‘More times than she could count’.

FBI agents investigating the abuse charges from gymnasts and students found 37,000 child pornography images and videos at his home, some of which he had stored on computer hard drives that he attempted to throw out in a trash bin. The FBI also has video of Nassar allegedly molesting girls in a pool. He’s accused of the federal crime of possessing child pornography.

The 53-year-old doctor, who has treated Olympic gymnasts, is accused by more than 60 former patients and athletes of sexual abuse during pelvic procedures.

He was fired by MSU in September, following a 2014 complaint by a graduate – though evidence of misconduct was not found. School officials said he violated restrictions that were put on his treatments

He has been stripped of his medical licence, amid at least six criminal and civil lawsuits.

In January 2017, 18 more people, some of them still minors, filed suit against Nassar over the alleged abuse.

John Manly, the lawyer for many of Nassar’s alleged victims, said his clients have reported abuse by Nassar beginning as far back as 1996. It was nearly a decade later before MSU or USA Gymnastics conducted their own probes into Nassar’s conduct.

Attorney General Bill Schuette said there will “absolutely” be more relating to the more than 80 women or girls who have made allegations. Michigan State University police chief James Dunlap said he has more than a dozen people working on the Nassar investigation.

Nassar remains in jail without bond.

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