ABC News gathered a group of former Team USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar’s victims to speak out on Friday night’s 20/20, detailing some of the horrifying abuse they suffered at the hands of someone who they had been conditioned to trust. Despite the fact that Judge Rosemarie Anguilina made it very clear that Nassar will never see outside the walls of a prison again for the remainder of his life, the collateral damage still lives on.
At one point during the interview, Elizabeth Vargas asked survivor Rachael Denhollander, who was molested between 10 and 13 times when she was just 15 years old in 2000, why she decided to reach out to the Indianapolis Star with her story. “Did you think that maybe now, people will believe me, that this door’s been cracked open by this fantastic journalism?” Denhollander replied, “Yeah, I was very aware of the societal dynamics surrounding abuse, I was confident that there were thousands, thousands, of victims out there.”
Astonished, Vargas asked, “Of Larry?” She then asked the group of women for a show of hands as to who agreed with her that the number was that high, and every single woman raised her hand. Over 100 women spoke out in court before Nassar’s sentencing to finally make their voices heard, but the tragic reality is that there are likely hundreds of others out there. It’s with any hope that they can find peace with their abuser locked away.