Unsurprisingly, it has surfaced tonight that there are potentially more victims in the charges against Jerry Sandusky, accused pedophile.
(Reuters) - There may be more accusers than originally thought in the Penn State University scandal involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who has been charged with sexually abusing 10 boys, according to court filings.
Sandusky attorney Joseph Amendola, in legal papers filed on Thursday in Common Pleas Court in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, made a reference to "accusers 11 through 17 as well as 18 through an unknown number."
Is this really a surprise to anyone?
Link To Story
When a pedophile is eventually discovered, it is almost 100% guaranteed that this is not his/her first victim. Pedophilia, like grooming, grows more brazen with each success - manifesting itself in escalating behaviors with more and more victims until the pedophile slips up and gets caught. It is estimated that a pedophile, over the course of a lifetime, abuses hundreds of children before getting caught.
The typical child sex offender molests an average of 117 children, most of who do not report the offence.
Source: National Institute of Mental Health, 1988.
A study conducted at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati (Amy Arszman Daso and Robert Shapiro, M.D) indicates that child sexual abuse allegations should be taken seriously and found children's testimony more reliable than physical exams in cases of sexual abuse. 45 [victims] described 111 acts of sexual abuse [by their abuser]. "Physical exams are an unreliable indicator of sexual abuse," says Dr. Shapiro. "We're not saying that children never make things up, but the responsible reaction is to listen carefully to allegations of abuse so that abused children will be identified and false allegations recognized." (May 2000)
Contact: Jim Feuer (EMail: jfeuer@chmcc.org), Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, 513-636-4420
These boys in Pennsylvania have started a movement of empowerment. Giving a voice to all of us survivors. While it kills me with each new revelation of yet another child knowing what I know, having lived through what I lived through, it is my hope that every single child this pedophile touched comes forward to see justice done.
I will be there, on the courthouse steps in quiet support of these brave young men. I will stand in solidarity with them and show them they are not alone.
As survivors, we’ve felt a private embarrassment and shame for a pain that was handed to us without provocation or warning. We wrongly assumed the fault was ours when it wasn't, and we shouldered the heinousness of the acts perpetrated upon us for far too long in silence and isolation.