They will be remembered for their courage in coming forward as adults, not for the assaults they endured on their bodies and their psyches as children.

Those were the words of Judge John Cleland, who spoke directly to the victims of Jerry Sandusky before sentencing the 68-year-old to 30 to 60 years in prison.



His words came after emotional statements from five victims — three who spoke in person, one who wrote a letter, and a fifth whose pain was relayed through his mother’s written words.

Some of them looked right at Sandusky, whose gaze never left them.

Others just looked down, choking through tears to get out the words.

Here is part of what they said.

Victim 9’s mom said she still blames herself for Sandusky’s “sick indulgences.”

“I thought it was my fault.”

Her son has twice tried to take his own life.

“To watch my sweet little boy turn into this person is too much to bear,” the statement said. “Not only did you molest him, you caused him a lifetime of suffering and sorrow.

"How cruel are you?

“Whatever comes to you I hope it is tenfold of what you have done to my son and others.”

Victim 4, who was the first to testify at trial, was the last of the victims to speak in court.

He was abused over many years in the 1990s, and was the first in the chronological timeline presented at trial.

He has called Sandusky a surrogate father who abused and used him.

“You had the chance to plead guilty and spare us,” he said. “Instead you decided to try to attack us. We both know exactly what happened.

“I want you to know that I don’t forgive you and I don’t know that I will ever forgive you.

"I grew up in a bad situation and you made things worse.

"My only regret is that I didn’t come forward sooner.

"I had no clue that it was hapenning to others. While I don’t forgive you, I ask others who were abused to forgive me for not coming forward sooner.”

Victim 1, now 18, said Sandusky’s abuse over many years has made it impossible for him to trust anyone. “I wish I could relax like it was before I ever met Jerry Sandusky,” the statement read.

“I’ve been looking over my shoulder for a long time.”

He suffers from mental health issues and anguish that words cannot describe, he said.

And he attacked Sandusky for his demeanor though the case. “He smiled and smirked his way through the legal proceedings. Through the end he wanted to manipulate the system and the victims. There is no remorse, only evil.”

Victim 6 spoke about his road to healing. “I have not arrived, but I have certainly left,” he said.

For many years, he said he became an outcast, lashing out to his family and friends as he struggled to process what happened to him “that night you told me you were the tickle monster so you could touch my 11 year old body.

“I believe you are only fooling yourself as you are trying to speak forth your innocence.”

Victim 5 said he felt a civic duty to testify against the man he still sees naked in his dreams. “The sentence will never erase images of his naked body, his hands on my hip,” he said in soft-spoken words. “It is real and it is painful and it will be inside me forever ... but he must pay for his crimes which he has now been properly convicted of.”