When I saw Emily Nutley’s smiling prison intake photo, my heart pounded with a familiar fury. Nutley, a former St. Xavier High School employee convicted of sexually abusing a 17-year-old student, received a three-year sentence. She’ll likely serve less than half that time.
According to the Enquirer, not only did she groom this child to gain his trust, she messaged him constantly and sent explicit photos, documenting her obsession with him. At least four encounters of child sexual abuse by Nutley were reported. When he tried to escape the abuse, she blackmailed him and even threatened suicide. The abuse was coercive and calculated.
And what sentence did she get? Three years. What did the victim get? A life sentence. He will carry the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual damage for years to come.
The utter cowardice and abject failure of Hamilton County Judge Jennifer Branch and the prosecutor’s office are indeed sad, but unsurprising. I should know.
My abuser, a teacher in the Oak Hills School District, sexually abused me for nearly four years. He received 30 days in jail and wasn’t required to register as a sex offender. He walked free while I lived in terror, traumatized for decades.
His sentence, like Nutley’s, wasn’t justice. It was a joke.
Read my survivor testimony for Ohio HB 322, which finally criminalized grooming, to understand Cincinnati’s many and repeated systemic failures. Until law enforcement, the courts and the press start treating child sexual abuse for what it is − violence against children − victims will keep paying the price.
Melissa Childs, Santa Monica, Calif., Oak Hills High School, 1997
This story was updated to add a video.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Nutley’s sentence for having sex with a student wasn’t justice. It was a joke | Letter
Reporting by Letters to the editor / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
