Disgraced former US gymnastics doctor stabbed multiple times in prison

Larry Nassar, the former sports doctor who is serving a decades long prison term for sexually abusing young female gymnasts, was stabbed multiple times during an altercation with another inmate on Sunday.

Nassar was stabbed twice in the neck, twice in the back and six times in the chest, Jose Rojas, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 506, which represents employees at the prison, told CBS News on Monday. Nassar suffered a collapsed lung and is in stable condition, Rojas said.

According to the Associated Press, which first reported the attack, sources said it happened during an altercation with another incarcerated person at United States Penitentiary Coleman in Florida.

The sources were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the attack or the ongoing investigation and spoke to The AP on the condition of anonymity.

Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing young female gymnasts who were entrusted to his care, including Olympic gold medallists Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.

His sentencing followed an extraordinary week-long hearing in which 160 of his victims, most of whom were minors at the time they were abused, unflinchingly told their stories.

Since the Nassar scandal, USA Gymnastics has overhauled its leadership and filed for bankruptcy.

It said at the time it was staggering under the weight of lawsuits filed by hundreds of women who were sexually abused by the former team doctor.

Nassar’s former employer, Michigan State University, agreed to a $US500 million ($750 million) settlement with the hundreds of women who were sexually abused by him.

USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee reached a $US380 million settlement.

A July 2021 report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz uncovered widespread and dire errors by the FBI that allowed Nassar to continue to abuse at least 70 more victims before he was finally arrested.

In September 2021, Ms Biles and Ms Maroney were among the high-profile Olympic gymnasts who gave heart-wrenching testimony before a US Senate panel about the sexual abuse they endured for years under Nassar’s care.

At that hearing, the gymnasts blasted the FBI for its mishandling of the investigation, with Ms Biles accusing the bureau of turning a blind eye to all of Nassar’s victims.