A day after Simone Biles became the latest Olympic gymnast to accuse former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar of sexual assault, the alleged molester was confronted by several women on Tuesday in a Michigan courtroom.
Already sentenced to 60 years in prison for possession of child pornography, the 54-year-old Nassar has also pleaded guilty to 10 counts of molestation, according to NBC News, but will face almost 100 different accounts of abuse at a four-day hearing in Lansing.
That hearing began on Tuesday without Biles and fellow Team USA standouts McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas, all of whom have publicly said they were abused by the former doctor. But it did not begin without prominent impact statements from other women, including Kyle Stephens, one of dozens of others who accused Nassar of inappropriate touching "under the guise of pelvic procedures" before the doctor was fired by both Michigan State and USA Gymnastics.
"Little girls don't stay little forever," Stephens said to Nassar in the courtroom, as Reuters reported.
The first of many women expected to address the disgraced doctor over the course of the hearing, Stephens also suggested that Nassar was responsible for her own father's suicide, saying "you convinced my parents that I was a liar" and that her dad took his own life "once her father realized she was telling the truth" about molestation dating back to when she was just 6 years old.
Another woman named Annette Hill, per NBC, told the courtroom that she herself "often" thinks of committing suicide because of abuse that she sustained upon seeking treatment from Nassar 20 years ago.
And others didn't stop at addressing Nassar. One speaker, NBC reported, "was outraged that MSU's president and trustees skipped the hearing," while several women openly criticized USA Gymnastics for "failing to acknowledge the mistakes they made before and after the scandal broke."
This week's hearing, which is expected to last until Friday, comes a month after Nassar's 60-year sentencing for child porn. At the time, reports indicated that a "shockingly large" possession of more than 37,000 illegal videos and images had been discovered in his possession.
