Abuse scandal in US gymnastics: FBI allegedly wrongly handled information in the Nassar case

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The now convicted Larry Nassar in the courtroom

Photo: Matthew Dae Smith / dpa

The FBI has mishandled evidence of sexual abuse by the now convicted former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, giving him months to take further action. This is the conclusion of a report released on Thursday by the Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Justice. Officials of the American Federal Police would not have responded with the necessary "seriousness and urgency" in allegations of this kind, it said.

Accordingly, there were first allegations in Indianapolis as early as July 2015. However, it then took five weeks for the first talks, and information was not passed on as prescribed. Nassar was only arrested a year later because of a second complaint in Michigan. In civil proceedings, according to US media, more than 70 women accuse the now 57-year-old of abuse for the period in question.

Since the summer of 2017, Nassar had been sentenced to prison terms of up to 175 years for his criminal attacks, including those against minors, in a total of three sentences.

He pleaded guilty to sexually abusing several girls in the trials.

In total, hundreds of gymnasts and their parents had sued him, including the Olympic champions Alexandra Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Simone Biles.

cev / dpa