Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno negotiated a $5.5m golden goodbye from the university within weeks of learning of a criminal investigation into child sex abuse by his long-time assistant, it was reported on Saturday.
The New York Times claimed that Paterno testified before a grand jury investigating allegations against convicted paedophile Jerry Sandusky in the same month that he secured a lucrative amendment to his contract.
The revelation comes amid disturbing questions over who at the university knew of Sandusky's suspected abuse, and why they did nothing to stop it. Earlier this week, a damning report into the scandal found Paterno – who died in January – to be an "integral part of the act to conceal".
Last month, Sandusky was found guilty of 45 counts of child sex abuse following a trial in which a succession of his victims gave harrowing testimony of their ordeal at the hands of a trusted figure.
The 68-year-old is currently awaiting sentencing and is expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Meanwhile attention is now turning to who at Penn State knew of the allegations, and to claims of a cover-up that allowed Sandusky to abuse children for more than a decade.
On Thursday a report by former FBI director Louis Freeh found that senior university figures repeatedly "concealed critical facts" relating to Sandusky's actions.
Paterno, along with university president Graham Spanier, vice-president Gary Schultz and athletic director Timothy Curley, "failed to protect against a child sɛҳuąƖ predator harming children for over a decade".
The report, ordered by board members at Penn State, concluded that there was a "total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims".
It said that the decision by the four men to allow the assistant football coach to retire in 1999 rather than hand him over to the police granted the serial abuser "licence to bring boys to campus facilities for 'grooming' as targets for his assaults".
The fallout from Sandusky's crimes could cost the university tens of millions of dollars in compensation for the victims.
A raft of lawsuits is expected to be launched against the institution, with a lawyer for one victim describing the Freeh report as a "treasure trove" of information.
Meanwhile, Curley and Schultz face criminal proceedings, having been charged with perjury and failing to alert authorities to an act of sɛҳuąƖ abuse.
Given the strength of Freeh's report, many have speculated that Paterno may have also faced prosecution had he not died in January, just months after being fired by Penn State.
In a statement released earlier this week, the revered coach's family denied that Paterno was part of a cover-up.
"Joe Paterno did not know that Jerry Sandusky was a paedophile. Joe Paterno did not act in any way to prevent a proper investigation of Jerry Sandusky. To claim otherwise is a distortion of the truth," it read.
But the latest claims made by the New York Times raises further questions over his integrity, and look set to cast a shadow over his legacy.
It claims that while knowing of the investigation into Sandusky's crimes, Paterno negotiated a multi-million dollar deal for himself.
The new contract included a $3m bonus if the coach agreed to step down by the end of the 2011 season.
Luxury stadium boxes for him and his family, and use of the university's private plane, were also included in the package, the New York Times reports.
It is claimed that Penn State's board was initially kept in the dark about the arrangement and attempted to block the deal once it was known.
But in the face of a threat of legal action by the Paterno family, it relented and handed over a package worth $5.5m, it was reported.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/14/joe-paterno-penn-state-payoff
Topic: Paterno Negotiated 5.5m Penn St Payoff As Scandal Grew (Read 1464 times)