[TheRealVille]

(Reuters) - Penn State leaders including late football coach Joe Paterno covered up Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of children for years, showing a callous disregard for the victims to protect a multimillion-dollar football program, former FBI director Louis Freeh said on Thursday.

Freeh also singled out former university President Graham Spanier and said a collective failure to stop Sandusky allowed the former assistant coach to continue luring victims for more than a decade.

"Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State," Freeh said. "The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized."

Sandusky, 68, was convicted last month of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years and faces up to 373 years in prison.

His arrest in November came nearly 14 years after Pennsylvania State University officials first became aware of allegations that Sandusky was a sexual predator, Freeh said at a news conference on the findings of his eight-month investigation, commissioned by university trustees.

"In order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at Penn State University ... repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse," Freeh said.

The 267-page report revealed the extent to which Paterno and others conspired to cover up allegations against Sandusky as far back as 1998, delivering a new blow to the reputation of a football program with the motto "success with honor."

The findings also provided new fuel for lawsuits - one expert predicted the university will eventually shell out more than $100 million in damages. Victims and their advocates have long complained they were sacrificed by university leaders for the cash and prestige generated by Penn State football.

"They were morally bankrupt, and wrong legally," said Thomas Kline, a lawyer who represents Victim 5 in the case.

Freeh blamed Spanier, Paterno, former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former university Vice President Gary Schultz for working in concert on a cover-up that began as early as 1998, when university police investigated allegations of abuse but let Sandusky off with a warning.

"Even though they all knew about the 1998 incident, the best they could muster to protect Sandusky's victims was to ask Sandusky not to bring his 'guests' into the Penn State facilities," Freeh said, adding that bad publicity would have upset donors and damaged the Penn State brand.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/1...5D20120712