US gymnasts raise serious allegations against the FBI: "We have been abandoned"

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US gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols

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SAUL LOEB / AFP

In the abuse scandal surrounding former US gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, who has now been convicted, Olympic champions Simone Biles, Alexandra Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols have made serious allegations before the Senate against the FBI, the national association USA Gymnastics and the Olympic and Paralympic Committee of the USA (USOPC ) collected.

At a hearing in the Justice Committee of the Congress Chamber, the gymnasts complained that the US Federal Police and those responsible for the responsible sports associations had not followed up their reports of abuse for a long time.

So they were partly to blame that Nassar could have abused many more girls.

For decades, Nassar had molested young female athletes and was sentenced to between 60 and 175 years in prison for child pornography and sexual abuse of at least 250 victims in three trials.

He was blown because many of those affected had made their tortures public.

Hundreds of gymnasts and their parents had sued him.

FBI Director Christopher Wray and Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General of the Justice Department, will testify in a separate session before the Senate committee. Horowitz's office published a report in July investigating the FBI's handling of the allegations against Nassar. It said the FBI had mishandled evidence of Nassar's sexual abuse, giving him months to do more. FBI officials would not have reacted with the "seriousness and urgency" necessary to allegations of this kind.

Maroney now told how she told the FBI over the phone in painful details in the summer of 2015 what Nassar had done to her. The FBI officer downplayed their experiences and said: "Is that all?" The federal police initially did not report their statement and only documented it after 17 months, but presented their descriptions "completely wrong". "You have chosen to lie about what I said and protect a serial abuser instead of protecting not just me but countless others." By inaction, the FBI allowed Nassar to remain in law for more than a year to move freely and to abuse other affected persons.

The gymnasts also complained about serious failures by the sports associations involved.

Biles said "a whole system" made Nassar's abuse possible.

“We have been abandoned and we deserve answers,” said the world record champion: “We have suffered and are still suffering because nobody in the FBI, the USAG or the USOPC did what was necessary to protect us. «

Raisman said, “It was like serving innocent children to a pedophile on a silver platter.” Nichols said she was “haunted by the fact that even after I reported my abuse, so many women and girls were under Larry's hands Nassar had to suffer «.

mon / dpa / sid