Retired boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard said Monday he cried for Jerry Sandusky's accusers after hearing of the former Penn State assistant football coach's arrest on child sex abuse charges nearly a year ago.
An abuse survivor himself, Leonard said he hopes the accusers can draw from his own story and willingness to speak out about a problem that drew national attention and crushed the reputation of one of the country's most famous college sports programs.
“What I had heard about Penn State _ I cried for those victims,” Leonard told reporters after speaking at Penn State's inaugural Child Sexual Abuse Conference. “Because I knew what they'd dealt with, what they lived with ... It's such an awful thing that eats away at you, that makes you feel that you're to blame.”
Sandusky, 68, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison earlier this month after being convicted on dozens of criminal counts covering abuse allegations both on and off campus. Eight accusers testified at the trial.
Leonard said he didn't plan to reach out to the accusers. But asked what advice he would pass on, Leonard said it would be to “surrender. And surrender means, `Yes it did happen,' but now deal with it. Speak up, speak out. Because if it happened to you, you can prevent it from happening to somebody else.”
Penn State hopes to become a leader in the research, treatment and prevention of child sex abuse.
About 68,000 cases of abuse were reported to protection services in the U.S. in 2010, according to data cited by University of New Hampshire researcher David Finkelhor. A 2006 study estimated there are 180,000 cases known to professionals.
But Finkelhor cited an academic study that estimated there may have been 1.6 million “contact sexual offenses” of juveniles in 2011.
Leonard revealed last year in a book that he was sexually abused by a coach while an amateur, something that haunted him throughout his life and led him to turn to alcohol and drugs.
The issue is still difficult for Leonard, who said he has been sober for six years. He choked up at times during his speech Monday.
He sought beforehand to prepare his 15-year-old daughter, Camille, about what he would talk about since he thought she did not know.
“She looked at me, and said, `Pop, I know,”' Leonard said. “And that's a good thing, because our kids need to know more. They need to be protected more.”
Leonard said he was abused in separate instances by two men, both of whom are now dead. He did not identify them.
“People need to hear more of this. You know what, use me, I will be that leader,” Leonard said. “I will stand right there and say, `Yes, something must be done now.' Not later, now.” (AP)
<관련 한글 기사>
스포츠전설 충격고백, “나도 성폭행당해”
권투의 전설 슈거 레이 레너드(56)가 29일(현지시간) 어릴 때 코치에게 성폭력을 당한 일을 이야기하면서 다른 피해자들에게 주변에 적극적으로 알리라고 권했다.
레너드는 이날 제리 샌더스키 전 미국 펜실베이니아주립대 미식축구 코치가 소년 10명을 추행한 혐의로 징역 30~60년형을 선고받은지 몇 주 지나 펜실베이니아주 립대가 주최한 아동 성폭력 콘퍼런스에서 이같이 말했다.
콘퍼런스가 끝나고 기자들을 만난 그는 피해자들에게 어떤 조언을 하겠느냐는 질문에 "항복해라. 항복이란 '그래 이미 일어난 일이다'라고 인정하는 것이다. 하지만, 이제 정면에서 문제를 다뤄라. 공개적으로 말해야 한다. 그래야, 다른 사람들도 이런 피해를 겪지 않게 막을 수 있기 때문"이라고 답했다.
그는 이어 당시 사건을 접하고 "피해자들 때문에 울었다"면서 "이들이 삶에서 어떤 것을 지고 갈지 알기 때문이다. 사람을 계속 갉아먹는 끔찍한 것으로 자신이 잘못했다고 생각하게 만든다"고 털어놨다.
5개 체급에서 세계 복싱 챔피언을 지내고 은퇴한 레너드는 지난해 책을 내고 아마추어 시절 코치로부터 성폭력을 당했으며 이 때문에 수치심을 지우려고 약물과 술 에 오랫동안 의존했다고 고백한 바 있다.
레너드는 이날 자신이 믿은 코치 2명에게서 개별적으로 성적 폭력을 당했다고 다시 이야기했다. 그는 "어린 아이와 권투 선수들에게 신뢰는 매우 성스러운 것이다. 이 사람들을 믿었다"면서 "오랫동안 자학했다"고 떠올렸다.
레너드는 "사람들은 이런 이야기를 더 들어야 한다. 나를 이용해라. 나를 따르라"면서 자신을 대표적 성폭력 사례로 이용해도 좋다고 말해 청중의 박수를 받았다.
