Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary has said he believes he saw former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky sexually molesting a boy – but didn't call police because he was sure "the act was over".
The testimony is the first time McQueary has told his story in a public setting since the college football scandal rocked one of the most respected teams in the US. The scandal has raised questions about why school officials, including the now-fired head coach Joe Paterno, didn't pursue complaints about Sandusky more fully.
McQueary's story is central to the case, as prosecutors say Sandusky continued to abuse boys for six more years.
The hearing will help the judge decide whether prosecutors have enough evidence against the pair to send the cases against two school administrators to trial. They are accused of lying to a grand jury about what McQueary told them.
Harrisburg district judge William Wenner halted the hearing around midday to review their grand jury testimony.
McQueary said he believes that Sandusky was attacking the child, aged 10 or 12, with his hands around the boy's waist in a Penn State locker room in 2002. He said there was no doubt in his mind that he fully conveyed what he had seen to the administrators.
Sandusky says he is innocent of more than 50 charges stemming from what authorities say were sexual assaults over 15 years on 10 boys.
Paterno told a grand jury earlier this year that he was told Sandusky had done something inappropriate with a child but that he didn't press for details because McQueary was very upset.
McQueary testified he truly believes what he saw in a Penn State locker room in 2002 was intercourse. He said the boy was facing a wall, with his hands on it.
He said he peeked into the shower several times and that the last time he looked in, Sandusky and the boy had separated. He said he didn't say anything, but "I know they saw me. They looked directly in my eye, both of them."
McQueary said the entire encounter from when he first entered the locker room to when he retreated to his office lasted about 45 seconds.
He said he never tried to find the boy.
He also said he reported it to coach Paterno the next day. He said he did not give Paterno explicit details of what he believed he'd seen, saying he wouldn't have used terms like "sodomy" or "anal intercourse" out of respect for the long-time coach.
He said Paterno told him he'd "done the right thing" by coming to him. The head coach appeared shocked and saddened and slumped back in his chair.
McQueary said Paterno told him he would talk to others about what he'd reported.
Paterno, the winningest coach in major college football, was fired shortly after the scandal broke as university officials said he had not done enough to pursue complaints about his former top assistant.
Under cross-examination, McQueary answered a question that many observers have asked: Why didn't he call police on Sandusky?
He said it was because it was "delicate in nature" and that he tried to use his best judgment. He said he was "sure the act was over."
Nine or 10 days later, McQueary said he met with school administrators Tim Curley and Gary Schultz and told them he'd seen Sandusky and a boy, both naked, in the shower after hearing skin-on-skin slapping sounds.
"I told them that I saw Jerry in the showers with a young boy and that what I had seen was extremely sexual and over the lines and it was wrong," McQueary said. "I would have described that it was extremely sexual and I thought that some kind of intercourse was going on."
McQueary said he was left with the impression both men took his report seriously. When asked why he didn't go to police, he referenced Shultz's position as a vice-president at the university who had overseen the campus police.
"I thought I was talking to the head of the police, to be frank with you," he said. "It was someone who police reported to and would know what to do with it."
Lawyers for Curley and Schultz say the men are innocent and contest McQueary's statements.
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