JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Hearing the name Sandusky, you likely think of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State football coach sentenced to prison for molesting children.
Matthew Sandusky, one of Jerry Sandusky's six adopted children, told an audience in Jacksonville gathered for a child abuse protection luncheon that his father molested him for years.
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At Wednesday's event, sponsored by Jacksonville's Exchange Club, Sandusky shared how he met the man who would later become his father. Despite Jerry Sandusky's excellent reputation within the community, the man sexually abused Matthew Sandusky well into his teenage years.
"We want to paint the people that do these crimes as monsters, that they are abhorrent to everything we stand for as human beings, and then it's hard when we have to justify and realize they are parents, they are coaches, they are loved ones in the child's life -- in our lives," Matthew Sandusky said.
Matthew Sandusky started the Peaceful Hearts Foundation to help children and sexual abuse survivors.
Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 charges of sexual abuse and is serving a sentence of up to 60 years in prison.