A disgraced former US gymnastics doctor has been sentenced to as much as 175 years behind bars after pleading guilty to molesting young female gymnasts.
Larry Nassar, 54, apologised in the courtroom to his victims before he was jailed on Wednesday. He was ordered to serve between 40 and 175 years in prison for his crimes.
Nassar had already admitted in November to molesting seven girls in his care under the guise of treatment.
A total of 156 girls and women came forward to speak at the seven-day sentencing hearing, with 24 more submitting private letters to the court.
The huge number of survivors who spoke out meant that the hearing – initially expected to last four days - was extended.
Judge Rosemarie Aquilina told Nassar: “I just signed your death warrant” as she sentenced him to prison in a courtroom in Michigan.
While Nassar pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting seven females in the Lansing area between 1998 and 2015, the hearing was open to all of his accusers.
His accusers said he would molest them while they were on a table seeking help for various injuries.
Nassar, who worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians, also has a 60-year prison sentence for child pornography crimes.
Before the sentence was announced, Nassar apologised to his victims, telling them, "I will carry your words with me for the rest of my days."
But Aquilina dismissed his statement as insincere, reading aloud from a letter Nassar wrote to her in which he claimed he was a good doctor who was "manipulated" into pleading guilty.
Nassar also claimed his accusers fabricated claims to gain money and fame and wrote, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
"This letter tells me you still do not own what you did," Aquilina said, after angrily tossing the sheet of paper aside. "I wouldn't send my dogs to you, sir."
