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Graham Spanier Speaks Publicly About His Own Child Abuse

Nine months after he was ousted as president of Penn State University, Graham Spanier has gone on record citing bouts of child abuse he experienced growing up.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News' Josh Elliott scheduled to air Wednesday night, Spanier chronicled the extensive abuse he suffered at his father's hands, which required four surgeries to correct breathing problems and injuries to his head.

"It resulted in, of course, some emotional scarring, but also some substantial physical damage," Spanier told Elliott.

While Spanier was never charged with anything in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, the subsequent independent investigation of the matter dubbed the Freeh report depicted Spanier as a man who essentially turned a blind eye to Sandusky's horrid acts.

In the ABC News interview, seen by some as part of a character rehabilitation effort, Spanier gives his side of the story and denies some of the accusations documented in the Freeh report.

Spanier told Elliott that he only actually met Sandusky once during his tenure as school president, and was only told once that Sandusky had engaged in "horseplay" with a child.

For more on the Penn State scandal, please be sure to check out our blog Black Shoe Diaries.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.