Disgraced US sports doctor Larry Nassar - who is behind bars after sexually abusing dozens of female gymnasts - has reportedly been stabbed multiple times by another prison inmate.
Two people familiar with the matter said the attack happened on Sunday at United States Penitentiary Coleman in Florida, according to the Associated Press news agency.
The sources said Nassar was in a stable condition on Monday.
One said he had been stabbed in the back and in the chest.
Nassar was sentenced to decades in prison in 2018 for sexually assaulting gymnasts, including Olympic medallists.
He admitted sexually assaulting athletes when he worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians. Separately, Nassar pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
During victim impact statements in 2018, several athletes testified that over the course of Nassar‘s more than two decades of sexual abuse they had told adults what was happening, including coaches and athletic trainers, but that it went unreported.
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.
His accusers said he would molest them while they were on a table seeking help for various injuries.
More than 100 women, including Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles, collectively sought more than one billion dollars (£778 million) from the US federal government for the FBI’s failure to stop Nassar when agents became aware of allegations against him in 2015.
He was arrested by Michigan State University police in 2016.
Michigan State, which was accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay 500 million dollars (£389 million) to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted by him. USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a 380 million dollar (£296 million) settlement.
In June 2022, the Michigan supreme court rejected a final appeal from Nassar.
Lawyers for Nassar said he was treated unfairly in 2018 and deserved a new hearing, based on vengeful remarks by a judge who called him a “monster” who would “wither” in prison like the wicked witch in “The Wizard of Oz”.
“I just signed your death warrant,” Ingham County Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said of Nassar‘s 40-year sentence.
The state supreme court said that Nassar‘s appeal was a “close question” and that it had “concerns” over the judge’s conduct.
But the court also noted that Judge Aquilina, despite her provocative comments, stuck to the sentencing agreement worked out by lawyers in the case.
“We decline to expend additional judicial resources and further subject the victims in this case to additional trauma where the questions at hand present nothing more than an academic exercise,” the court said in a two-page order.
More than 150 victims spoke or submitted statements during an extraordinary seven-day hearing in Judge Aquilina’s court more than four years ago.
“It’s over. Almost six years after I filed the police report, it’s finally over,” said Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar.
Nassar’s abuse scandal was the subject of a 2020 Netflix documentary called Athlete A.
