BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) — Court officials say a longtime piano teacher awaiting a jury’s verdict on charges he sexually assaulted an underage student has shot himself outside a New Hampshire courthouse.
Authorities say 75-year-old John Goodwin, of Atkinson, went on trial this week on six counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault. Prosecutors say he repeatedly assaulted the student, who is now 24.
Court officials say the jury was deliberating when Goodwin shot himself Friday morning outside Rockingham County Superior Courthouse. He wasn’t in custody at the time.
WMUR-TV reports that the former student testified that he didn’t come forward until 2013 because he was embarrassed. The station reports Goodwin’s lawyer acknowledged that his client was “touchy-feely” but said he didn’t commit a crime.
Court officials say Goodwin was airlifted to Boston Medical Center.
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Zero empathy for child molesters here.
I’m sorry his victim won’t get to see him sentenced.
Zero empathy here also; however the article states that he was awaiting the verdict, not the sentence, and we are all still innocent until proven guilty and pronounced as such by a jury of our peers.
I’ll remember that when I am called to serve on the jury of someone accused of child molestation. I am pretty sure that an innocent person wouldn’t off themselves before even hearing the verdict.
People are falsely accused all the time. With a juror like you I’m not sure they’d get a fair trial.
You are apparently unaware of the great number of people who plead guilty to crimes they 100% didn’t commit. They do so not because they are pleading down, but because they are manipulated.
This guy might be as guilty as they come. But he also might have been innocent and had concluded that the trial hadn’t gone well and didn’t want to spend time in prison. Maybe everybody was already treating him as if he was guilty – friends distancing themselves, hate mail, graffiti – and he couldn’t bear it.
He might have also had other health issues, mental or otherwise, which contributed to this. I’m sure you remember the recent story of the Republican running for office who shot himself because of an alleged whisper campaign about him being Jewish. To you or me that wouldn’t be worth shooting ourselves over, but to that guy, it was a big deal.